IN an effort to help fish returning to spawning grounds negotiate barriers such as dams, an innovative company in the US has invented a “fish cannon”.
The Salmon Cannon from Whooshh Innovations is, as its name suggests, a propulsion system that looks to be able to succesfully launch fish over and or around manmade obstacles such as dams and weirs.
The concept is fairly simple. As the fish nose around the inlet, they are sucked inside and from there they are are launched through a tube filled with air and pushed along till they shoot out the other end.
An article by Australian Popular Science explains that the Salmon Cannon was actually a machine designed to transport fruit without bruising it. Once the idea of modifying the system to work with live fish came about, it took five years of fine tuning before it could trialed at a dam. In June, Chinook salmon went through the tubes of their own accord without a hitch – see video below. More trials are planned but the future of the Salmon Cannon is looking good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSBS2F9VXaE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=andF0aEqpi0#t=97
Info on Whooshh Innovations at: whooshh.com
