Fish Cannon Offers High-Velocity Piscine Transportation
This video shows a Whooshh Innovations system for transporting live, probably pretty confused, fish from place to place. It features a pneumatic tube (yeah, sort of like that thing at the bank drivethrough) that can push the fish over long distances without harming them. It’s hoped it may eventually be used to help salmon make it upstream past man-made dams.
The system is currently being tested at Roza Dam in Washington State to see if it is safe to transport salmon. Salmon migration up Washington’s Columbia River is currently assisted by slanted, maze-like fish ladders that help them get over some of the river’s smaller dams. But the 236-foot-tall Chief Joseph Dam is too high for a fish ladder to work, so there the migration stops.
Researchers are running the test on a portion of the salmon run that is being diverted to a hatchery. The system launches the fish up an embankment and into a tanker truck. It’s much more efficient than the old way of doing things, which was grabbing the live fish from the water and then running like a maniac to get them to the tanker truck before they are harmed.
Tests show that the fish can be directed to enter the tube on their own, and they seem no worse for wear for their 15 to 22 MPH joyride. The system keeps the sides of the tube moist to keep the fish wet as they travel through.
If there are no longterm ill-effects to the unusual mode of transport, this system will become the default system for collecting fish for the hatchery, and might eventually be put into place to help salmon ride over Columbia River’s dams.
[Source: The Verge]