In response to a request by the ISRP, the sponsors of the proposal provided summarized information (from a 2004 report by Battelle PNNL) of bull trout presence in fish ladders and juvenile bypass facilities at three lower Snake River dams. The small number of fish actually recorded and the very roughly expanded estimates based on a 0.4-100% sampling rates are not enough evidence to conclude that a significant problem exists for bull trout passing lower Snake River dams or that significant numbers of bull trout may be unintentionally transported down-river on barges.

In addition, the proposal does not adequately demonstrate that the methods they plan to employ will be sufficient to estimate the parameters they identify in their tasks. They fail to show that the sampling scheme (sampling in the juvenile bypass systems) coupled with the planned PIT tagging is actually sufficient to estimate the number of bull trout and the proportion of bull trout that end up in smolt barges.

The project sponsors are advised to conduct a focused demonstration or pilot study (within the Corp's AFEP Program) at one of the lower Snake River dams (i.e., Lower Granite Dam) to produce data indicating the potential significance of bull trout entrainment into smolt transportation barges.