Say goodbye to the lazy river. Salmon now have a cannon! Sounds fishy, but it's true. Whooshh Innovations, a Bellevue, Wash.-based company, has developed a product called the Fish Passage. Nicknamed the "salmon cannon," it is used to move salmon upstream much more quickly and safely than the fish are normally able to travel. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has recently adopted the device to move Chinook salmon up the Washougal River about 120 feet in five seconds to a nearby truck, which then transports the fish to a hatchery.
The salmon cannon doesn't actually shoot the fish, but rather fish are placed in a tube that propels them quickly through. This is much easier and less traumatic for the fish than traditional handling and transport methods. Previously, fish were moved using a forklift and a tote container.
The Whooshh website explains the need for such fancy fish transportation: "Fish species are affected by the development and operation of dams. Dams without adequate fish passage systems block migrating upstream adults from reaching critical habitat. For downstream juveniles, a substantial proportion can be killed while migrating through dams, both directly through collisions with structures and abrupt pressure changes during passage through turbines and spillways, and indirectly, through non-fatal injury and disorientation."
If you are looking to upgrade your own fish transportation, you are going to have to shell out about $150,000. Until then, check out the cannon from the salmon's point of view:
