The Tube That Changed How the World Thinks About Fish Migration
Before Whooshh, the conversation about fish passage at dams was largely a conversation about how much it would cost and how long it would take. Fish ladders were the accepted answer. They required civil engineering, years of permitting, and substantial ongoing maintenance. For smaller operators and remote sites, those requirements were often prohibitive. The result was a category of fish barriers where passage was effectively off the table for economic reasons. The fish cannon changed that conversation. Not immediately, and not without skepticism. When Whooshh demonstrated that a pneumatic tube could move salmon over a dam at 25 feet per second with no handling and no permanent civil structure, the fisheries management community's first response was understandably cautious. The technology looked unusual. The evidence for fish welfare outcomes was still accumulating. What changed the conversation was the data. A 2014 study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and conducted by Pa...