In an effort to help salmon safely venture across the water, a company has invented a specialized cannon that will shoot the fish out. Whooshh Innovation is behind the radical cannon.
In an effort to help salmon safely venture across the water, a company has invented a specialized cannon that will shoot the fish out. Whooshh Innovations is behind the radical cannon.
Years ago, Whooshh staffers created the tubes to transport fruit. However, they soon saw an opportunity to assist salmon as the state of Washington was debating what to do about hydroelectric dams that were blocking fish migration routes.
Whooshh tubes had previously been successful at sending apples flying at long distances minus any damage, so employees thought fish could be sucked up and sent over the damns blocking the Columbia river.
The company’s vice president, Todd Deligan stated “So we put a tilapia in the fruit tube. It went flying, and we were like, ‘Huh, check that out.” That was about 5 years ago.
Now, the tubes are specially crafted for trout and salmon. This past June, Chinook salmon were sent flying through the tubes or cannons during testing runs at a dam in Washington.
The Department of Energy will run an additional test in September and in a few weeks Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will use a 150-foot-long mobile tube system to send salmon flying up a 20-foot embankment and into a the back of a truck.
The Columbia river has a number of hydroelectric dams that make it nearly impossible for salmon to get to the ocean and back. The goal is for the tubes to be long and effective enough to help the fish bypass right over the dams.
