Thursday, March 28, 2024

Whooshh to demonstrate fish passage system

Salmon migration aid

Posted

BRIDGEPORT –The latest development in cutting-edge fish passage technology is coming to Chief Joseph Dam for a demonstration from 1-3 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 10.
Whooshh Innovations, creator of a system that allows fish like chinook salmon to be safely transported over a major obstacle such as a dam on their migration route, will demonstrate its state-of-the-art fish passage technology.
The Whooshh Passage Portal™ system will anchor its floating barge below Chief Joseph Dam on the north side of the river east of the hatchery. From that anchorage the company will show how captured fish can be safely transported up and over the dam.
A Whooshh media release said the system includes:
1. Volitional Entry – Fish swim into the system on their own.
2. FishL Recognition™ - Whooshh machine-vision scanning produces 18 crystal-clear images of every fish, creating next-level data for improved fisheries management.
3. Gatekeeper™ - Automated real-time sorting decisions are made for each fish. This is key for selective fish passage while sorting hatchery v. wild and removing invasive species.
4. Fish Migrator™ - Proprietary misted tubing safely and gently allows fish to continue their migrating journey.
Nine years ago, Whooshh CEO Vincent Bryan III was field testing his mechanical fruit harvesting and sorting equipment when he witnessed helicopters flying large buckets of migratory salmon above a dam. On a later visit to a California citrus orchard Bryan saw a grove of half-century old dead fruit trees from lack of irrigation water that had been diverted to save a salmon run.
As necessity is the mother of invention, Whooshh applied its fruit transport tube approach to salmon in a quest to develop a better way to share critical water resources that were coming into conflict with agricultural needs. The technology, refined and improved with the help of independent studies, convinced Whooshh to focus on fish transport since 2013.    
The Department of Energy funded a 2014 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory study that compared the Whooshh system with the trap-and-haul method of adult chinook salmon and found survival, immune responses and egg survival comparable. Whooshh has since added a scanning and sorting capability to its system that allows fish managers to remove invasive species and redirect hatchery stocks.
Working with the Colville Confederated Tribes, Washington Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Whooshh has acquired all necessary permits to deploy its technology during the 2019 summer and fall chinook runs.
“The Chief Joseph Dam currently marks the farthest point salmon can migrate up the Columbia River system,” said the Whooshh media release. “Whooshh Innovations representatives will be on hand to explain the system’s operations and answer questions about this transformative solution.”
 

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