Whooshh Innovation wanted to solve the problem of man made barriers interfering with fish spawning. They took inspiration from the salmon themselves, observing that when salmon had a problem with barriers that they simply jumped over the barriers.
Fish flying through the air starts at around 2:00 in this video.
If man can create barriers higher than nature, Whooshh then reasoned that man should be able to help the fish jump higher than its barriers. Their solution is the salmon cannon, an amazing system that gives the fish soft transport through the air and over barriers.
The salmon cannon can transport fish from one to fifteen kilograms in size. The average pressure of one to two pounds per square inch has so far shown little to no scale loss and no eye damage to the travelers.
Typical systems that have been built by the company can move around forty fish per minute a range of five to ten meters. Water is used in the transport only as a lubricant, not as a traveling medium. The system is built from materials rated to withstand -60 to 300 degrees Celsius, so temperature has not yet been an issue.
The system is deceptively simple – three moving parts are required to get fish from one side of the barrier to another. General power usage is 5-25 kiloWatts. So far the longest length for a fish ride has been around 230 feet but the system can theoretically operate at a distance of 2000 feet.
Maximum incline in practice has been 45 degrees but the potential exists for a 90 degree trip. As a general rule the return on investments for the fish cannons has been less than two years.
We’ve covered robots that were steered by the power of fish before but this is a new development in the power of inspired engineering fish work. In my broad definition of engineering as ‘making the world a better place’ this is definitely a project that fulfills a social need in new and innovative ways.
Shooting fish out of a cannon isn’t something that can be adequately explained with words. Whooshh has a page full of videos showing their different fish passage projects, and all are ambitious in scope and fantastic to watch.