Whooshh 2

Whooshh 2

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Problem. A salmon is swimming back to its native birthplace after spending time in the ocean. As it makes its way up the river it encounters a blockade in the form of a dam. How does it get up and over? Fish ladders are old-school according to Vincent Bryan of Whooshh Innovations.

“When they enter our system, they are leaving the world of water. The way it works is if we either increase the atmospheric pressure behind the fish or decrease the pressure in front of the fish, the fish is going to move to where there is less pressure. Our tube effectively conforms to the shape of the fish that is in the tube thereby causing the pressure differential between the front of the fish and the back of the fish. As soon as we do that, the fish moves. It moves quickly and is remarkably gentle at the same time. It has been misted, there is a slime coating on it so the friction coefficient within the Whooshh system is almost nothing. We create a good enough seal around the fish such that that pressure differential is created and off the fish moves. We are doing it in combination. We are initially pulling the fish in and then pushing them the rest of the way. Just imagine the first step of a fish ladder. You’re attracting the fish with the flow, the fish want to get upstream, there is a dam in front of them, so the fish comes up over that first step and as soon as they come over the top and they are committed, the waterfalls away and they slide right into our pump-house and with very little pressure differential they take off and you can actually see them being transported through this tube as they are moving along.”

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