Whooshh Innovations is a Seattle based company that specializes in transporting fish. We do not mean transporting frozen fish in a semi truck, but instead, in figuring out a way for migratory fish to reach their natural spawning grounds on rivers that have dams. Hydropower through dams is a clean source for renewable energy which means they are not going to be removing too many of them soon. Whooshh Innovations has been working on ways for dams and wild salmon and steelhead to coexist. Solutions like “Fish Ladders” are not always effective and exhausting on the fish, while trapping fish and moving them via truck or even helicopters is not economical. Their solution? The Fish Tube. An innovative concept to safely move fish over dams using a pressured tube (similar to a siphon in your 8th grade science class). This tube transport system offers a significantly more affordable solution to fish ladders and is much less stressful on the fish. Also, the fish move through the tube one at a time which gives us the opportunity to remove non native or hatchery fish if desired. Check out the video below!
Note: If you’re viewing this in a newsletter or a reader, click here to see the video on our website.
Whether this ends up being a viable solution or not. We are intrigued by their end goal of figuring out a way for dams to remain in place while restoring native migratory fish. Reconnecting these fish with their natural spawning grounds, despite a dam separating them, is a problem that requires a creative solution. Could this be it? We are all for opening up these runs of native fish! For more information on Whoosh Innovation, check out their website here.
More on Conservation:
Leave a Reply