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The RETERO project aims to reduce life fish experiments for the physical evaluation of injury and mortality risks during downstream passage of fish through turbines, bypasses or over weirs by three approaches. 1. Improvement of the prediction quality of fish agent based numerical models 2. Development of an active sensor (robot fish) for field evaluation of mortality risk 3. Backpack sensors attached on life fish to measure environmental parameters One theoretical fundament for the first two approaches is the knowledge about the behavioral response of fish on the hydraulic conditions at hydro power plants. It is already known that the blade strike risk during turbine passage differs between active and passive fish. We assume, that swimming against the flow may prolong the duration of stay of fish in the blade strike risk area. In general, fish behavior influences the injury risk of fish during the passage of hydro power plants. Therefore, it is crucial to implement behavior rules into agent based numerical models and the control of a new developed robot fish. Ethohydraulic experiments were carried out in a test flume to provide insight into the response of fish to flow acceleration and high total flow velocity occurring in turbines, pumps, their inlets, and other corridors. The analysis of the swim paths is based on 3D video tracking data and on quantitative parameters describing the fish behavior. Our study results from the ethohydraulic lab experiments showed characteristic swim patterns for brown trout and responses on both examined hydraulic parameters. Other fish species will be studied with the same experimental design to compare the behavior between species and enable generalized conclusions.