Abstract
Wild fish population are often impounded by hydropower dams, which can restrict migration and habitat requirements, while making fishes susceptible to deleterious harm from entrainment through spillways and turbines, stranding from dewatering, as well as hydrokinetic developments that are being proposed for installment within tailraces. With applying acoustic biotelemetry and using model selection, I investigated the spatial ecology and biological responses from Lake Sturgeon and Walleye relative to hydropower developments on a large river. The results in chapter 2 document the spatial ecology of wild fishes within a run-of-river impoundment. In chapter 3, biotelemetry was used to investigate the risk of impacts from hydrokinetic turbines on wild fishes. This information will help to enhance management for Lake Sturgeon and Walleye populations that are impounded due to hydropower developments, and help guide best practices for commercial operations for hydrokinetic turbines that are placed within tailraces of hydropower stations.