'Salmon Cannon' Shoots Fish Upstream in Washington

A "salmon cannon," while it sounds dangerous, is actually a harmless way to transport fish upstream - an unusual idea currently being launched in Washington, and used to move hundreds of salmon just this past Tuesday.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has developed the bizarre cannon to move hatchery and Chinook, or king, salmon upriver in Washington state. Developed by Whooshh Innovations, the $150,000 "salmon cannon" is a quick, gentle, and more cost-effective way to move migratory fish from the Washougal River up the riverbank with minimal handling.

And though the system may amusingly be referred to as the salmon cannon, the device does not shoot these fish out of it.

Instead, using just enough water to make the journey smooth enough, the hand-placed fish travel through the 120-foot-long tube, nudged along by a cylinder-shaped sponge or other fish should they get stuck.

"It's like a Slip'N Slide going uphill," Vincent Bryan III, CEO of Bellevue-based Whooshh Innovations, told The Associated Press (AP).

Once the slippery fish make it to the other side of the vacuum-like tube, they are placed into a truck waiting at the top of a hill to transport them to other hatchery locations. All in all, the ride takes a mere four to six seconds, and is not harmful to the fish.

The process is also "much easier" on fish than the old, time-consuming method which involved totes and forklifts, according to Eric Kinne, hatchery reform coordinator with the WDFW.

"It's definitely much more efficient," added Elise Olk, a WDFW scientific technician who assisted with moving salmon on Tuesday. "It's less handling for the fish, too."

The motivation behind the design is to better control the number of hatchery fish that use the natural spawning grounds upstream of the Washougal River site. It's also an alternative way to move migratory fish over dams and other obstructions, since fish ladders on dams are expensive to build and rely on "sprints" that can cause the fish to have heart attacks.

In related news, just last month demolition on the Glines Canyon Dam in Washington's Elwha River was completed, restoring wildlife to the area and allowing legendary Chinook salmon to once again access upstream waters, previously blocks by the dam, which lacked fish ladders.