Whooshh

We get asked a version of this question more often than most: does the passage structure at our site actually know which fish it is passing? The answer, at most conventional facilities, is no. A fish ladder or fish elevator moves fish upstream. It doesn't ask who they are. It doesn't distinguish a native Chinook Salmon from an invasive American Shad. It doesn't generate a record that tells you the answer afterward. At Whooshh Innovations, we built the fish passage portal concept around a different premise: a passage structure should be an active management tool, not a passive corridor. What is the Purpose of Fish Passage Portal  The PassagePortal systems, both the Model F floating platform and the Model L land-based installation, integrate fish entry, AI classification, selective sorting, and MigratorTube transport in a single platform. Fish enter volitionally through the ASPFishway, attracted by a tailrace-sourced current positioned within the natural migration corridor. F...

The fish ladder is one of the oldest engineered solutions in natural resource management. The basic concept, a series of stepped pools creating a passable gradient for fish to swim upstream past a barrier, has been documented in various forms since the 17th century. The first modern fish ladder designs emerged in the 19th century in response to salmon population declines in European rivers, and the technology was adopted widely in North America as dam construction accelerated through the 20th century. At Whooshh Innovations, we have genuine respect for what the fish ladder represented as an innovation. It was a serious engineering response to a real ecological problem at a time when the alternatives were to either ignore the problem or remove the dam. Both of those are still options. But today there's a third option: technology that does what a fish ladder does, and more, with a smaller footprint, lower cost, and the data infrastructure that modern fisheries management requires. T...

We get this question more than almost any other. Someone watches the video, the one with the salmon shooting through a tube in slow motion, and the first thing they ask is: is that real? Does it actually work? Do the fish survive? The short answer is yes. But the longer answer is more interesting. The fish cannon, as the internet named it back in 2014 when the original Whooshh demo video went viral, is a real, functioning technology. It's based on differential air pressure, the same basic principle you'd see in a pneumatic tube system at a bank drive-through, adapted over years of biological testing and engineering iteration to move live fish safely. The fish travel through a flexible, misted MigratorTube at around 25 feet per second on a cushion of cooled, humidified air. No net contact. No handling. No injury to scales or fins in properly deployed systems. What Actually Happens to a Fish During Passage? The entry is volitional. Fish swim into the system on their own, attracte...

A dam built for hydropower has one job: generate electricity. But in most regulatory jurisdictions, it has a second obligation too, one that engineers and operators often find harder to satisfy. Native fish need to move. They've been moving along the same river corridors for thousands of years, reaching spawning grounds, returning to the sea, and cycling nutrients back into river ecosystems. A dam blocks that movement. The question isn't whether passage is needed. It's whether what's currently providing it is actually working. Traditional fish ladders have been around since the 1800s. They're a well-understood, widely used technology. But being well-understood doesn't mean being effective. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, many fish ladder systems in the U.S. West Coast have passage efficiencies below 70% for some salmon populations. That means in a worst-case scenario, three fish in ten don't make it past a single structure. For species al...

Are you still moving live assets using 20th-century water-tank logic? Why do we trust high-tech biosecurity for our facilities but rely on rough, turbulent pumping for our stock? If you manage a hatchery or a processing plant, you know that every minute a fish spends in transit is a minute of risk. It is time for a fresh perspective on the modern fish transport system. We need to stop seeing movement as a "necessary evil" and start seeing it as a controlled, data-driven glide. In today's competitive B2B landscape, the quality of your transfer dictates the quality of your bottom line. Is your current pumping method damaging your biomass? Traditional fish pumps and water-haul systems are aggressive. They involve dewatering, crowding, and physical impact against hard surfaces. According to NOAA Fisheries, the success of any aquatic operation depends on "safe and effective" handling. When fish are stressed, their cortisol levels spike and their immune systems weaken...

Why are we still basing multi-million dollar river management decisions on blurry silhouettes? Have you ever wondered why we rely on manual clickers in an age of artificial intelligence? In today’s regulatory climate, having the best fish imaging equipment isn’t just a luxury. It is a necessity for anyone managing a waterway or a dam. Most traditional methods rely on human observation through murky windows. This is slow. It is expensive. Most importantly, it is often inaccurate. We need to stop guessing and start seeing. It is time for a fresh perspective on how we monitor the life in our rivers. The Failure Of The Murky Viewing Window For decades, fisheries management has been stuck in the past. Biologists sit in dark rooms for hours. They try to count fish through glass covered in algae. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Fish Passage Program has removed or bypassed thousands of barriers. But how do we measure the success of these projects? If your data is ...