The Northwest Power and Conservation Council's Fish and Wildlife Committee this week agreed to recommend to the full Council that a package of five "innovative" project proposals requesting $2.4 million be funded during fiscal years 2008-2009.

At the top of the list is a proposed integrated electric barrier that would be activated by sonar artificial intelligence software that detects the presence of pinnipeds.

The project's proponent says marine mammals such as sea lions are extremely sensitive to electronic fields and will be repulsed by low-level emissions that will not harm them or other creatures. The ultimate goal is to deter sea lion predation on Columbia River salmon.

Off the list is a proposal to test traditional commercial fishing gears from the past for selective harvest. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife proposed to evaluate the selective harvest of fall chinook and coho salmon with beach seine, pound net and fish wheel gear. The intent would be to allow a maximum harvest of hatchery fish with minimal harm to naturally produced salmon that are protected under the Endangered Species Act. "Selective" means the gear catches the fish unharmed so they can be sorted and wild fish released to continue on their spawning trek.

The selective fishing evaluation drew criticisms from commercial fishers.

Some of the gill-netters concerns date back 75 years when seines and other gear operated by fish processing companies produced conflicts with individual commercial fishermen, Guy Norman, WDFW southwest regional director, told the committee.

He said that the agency was withdrawing the proposal for now and will attempt to resolve practical and social issues with the gill-netters. An initial meeting was held earlier this week.

"It's premature to move forward with this," Norman said of the $444,971 proposal. The WDFW and others believe that developing selective gear is necessary if they are to maintain fishing opportunity and provide ESA protections.

Norman said the agency would "move forward with the project once we coordinate with the fishing industry."

The predation deterrence and selective fishing proposals were among 59 submitted to the Council earlier this year in response to a solicitation for creative solutions that benefit fish and wildlife. In total, $16 million in funding was requested for the proposals. The Council had earmarked $2 million for the funding category for the two year period.

The Council has focused on nine of the proposals that its Independent Scientific Review Panel had found to substantially meet the solicitation criteria -- are innovative and on-the-ground, describe scientifically sound techniques and offer immediate benefits.

The electric barrier and a proposal to remediate contaminated river sediments were the most highly ranked by the ISRP. A second tier included the selective fishing proposal, an eelgrass enhancement strategy in the Columbia River estuary and a test of farm gear that could potentially make water use more efficient and result in more water being left in-stream for fish.

The top five proposals requested a total of $2.5 million in funding. The four-phase development and testing of the electronic barrier would take up $1.44 million of the available funding.

Washington Councilor and committee member Larry Cassidy suggested that the sea lion deterrence projects proposed by Smith-Root, Inc., of Vancouver, Wash., be stretched over three years to free up funding for additional innovative projects. He said that the final third of the project's costs that would be incurred in 2010 could be funded from the Council's fish and wildlife budget for the year or through its within-year budget request process, "funded by whatever means available."

The Council's fish and wildlife program budget is set at $143 million per year for the 2007-2009 period. The current budget includes the $2 million innovative allocation, and a $2 million reserve to handle within-year budget requests.

Oregon Councilor Joan Dukes did not like the idea, saying it would set a bad precedent by guaranteeing in advance funding for a project over projects that are channeled through the Council's normal selection process.

After a break, Cassidy offered a staff alternative that would fully fund the Smith-Root project and four others during 2008-2009 at $2.4 million. The $400,000 over the innovative category limit would be funded with any "carryover" that might be available at year's end from previous years' budgets.

The Council will consider an innovative funding package when it meets Sept. 11 in Portland.

The Smith-Root project was the focus of nearly a third of the comments received from state and federal agencies, tribes, interests groups and others regarding the innovative proposals. The comments, and the Council members themselves, raised a number of concerns. Some thought the project too costly, others doubted it could complete environmental permitting within the time allowed for the projects, still others feared that the electronic array might harm lamprey, salmon or other species, or disrupt their behavior.

Smith-Root senior scientist Carl Burger responded Tuesday to each of the concerns.

The test is indeed novel. Burger said that no scientific literature could be found regarding studies of the effects of an underwater electric field on pinnipeds.

The company did run initial tests last year on two captive seals at the Vancouver, B.C. Aquarium that showed the pinnipeds would not go near the electrode once the field was activated.

Tests earlier this year in B.C.'s Puntledge River showed the electric barrier prevented seal upstream movement.

More recently the company equipped 50 fathoms of a 100-fathom gill-net with the electrodes. The comparison of the electrified portion of the net to the non-electrified portion was stark, Burger said.

The electrified portion caught "five times as many salmon as the non-electrified portion of the net," Burger said. Seals that plunder the nets stayed away from the electrified net, but continued preying on the fish caught in the other half.

Salmon are not feeling the current while the seals are, he said.

"That to us is very exciting news."

Burger stressed that the electric array will be selective, activated only when a marine mammal is detected and not responsive to other swimmers. The software to be developed will be programmed to recognize the unique anatomy and swimming patterns of seals and sea lions.

"This equipment is unique in the world," said Jeff Smith, Smith-Root CEO.

Regardless, the electronic pulses will flash for such a short duration (.001 seconds) and at such low levels that they will be harmless.

"We don't even think they will feel it," Burger said of salmon, lamprey, sturgeon or humans in the water.

The proposed barrier would operate at a pulse frequency of two pulses per second. That's one-fifth the 10 Hz used at hatchery weirs and 15 to 30 orders of magnitude less than the 30-70 Hz used in electrofishing programs to capture fish for tagging and live release, Burger said.

The marine mammals' eyes and snout fair follicles are extremely enervated, an attribute developed to enhance their predation ability. It also makes them ultra sensitive to the electronic pulses. The sea lions central nervous system will also be affected by the underwater electric currents flowing through its body, Burger said.

The plan is to develop the array for testing in the spring of 2009 in the Willamette River.

The projects recommended for funding by the committee include:

-- "Improving Fish Habitat Using Innovative Strategies to Remediate Contaminated Sediments in the Columbia River Basin"

Sponsor: Washington State University

FY08-09 budget: $185,112

The purpose of this proposal is to demonstrate an innovative cleanup strategy designed to treat toxic sediments to improve fish habitat.

-- "Integrated Non-Lethal Electric Barrier and Sonar System to Deter Marine Mammal Predation on Fish in the Columbia River System: A Demonstration Project"

Sponsor: Smith-Root, Inc

FY08-09 budget: $1,440,483

This proposal would develop and evaluate a passive, integrated electric barrier and sonar array that selectively inhibits upstream marine mammal movements and predation on fish, without injuring pinnipeds or affecting anadromous fish migrations.

-- "Eelgrass enhancement and restoration in the Columbia River Estuary through innovative site selection and planting techniques"

Sponsor: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

FY08-09 budget: $252,794

Strong flows in the Columbia River likely limit the success of eelgrass seed dispersal and new plant establishment. PNNL proposes using innovative site selection techniques to identify 5-10 areas suitable for eelgrass enhancement, plant, and monitor success.

-- "Enhancing Summer In-stream Flow and Reducing Temperature in Agricultural Watersheds"

Sponsor: Washington State University

FY08-09 budget: $224,766

This project proposes to explore groundwater recharge via direct seeding (no-till). The research would evaluate the effectiveness and use of no-till as a method to increase summer flows. This pilot project and simulation model development exercise would provide a test and insight on no-till effectiveness on infiltration changes and ground water recharge towards augmentation of summer flows.

-- "Physical and Biological Field Testing of a Flow Velocity Enhancement System (FVES) "

Sponsor: Natural Solutions

FY08-09 budget: $318,310

Natural Solution's patented FVES provides migration cues using mechanically generated turbulent-flow fields. Field testing will evaluate effectiveness of induced flow for enhancing and guiding smolt migration, important for developing efficient bypasses.