Environmental Energy
Research Collaboration

How do you herd fish?
Like cats, only in three dimensions!

The Physical Fish Herding Project

If fish could be herded, it would help in their farming, capture, and enhancement. This research addresses fish herding for the purpose of getting fish up past dams, so that fish populations might survive. The only natural models of fish herding available are of humpback whales and porpoises. The whales surround fish with an air bubble curtains that concentrate the fish into one small area, then the whales surface through the school middle with their mouths open and eat well.

Our research follows this whale design school of thought. We have observed in our research with trout, salmon, hitch and other fish that that fish not only shy away from bubble curtains as in the anchovy from the whale, but in many other cases fish both individuals and schools are attracted to the bubbles for cover, play, and curiosity. We are using all these modes of interaction along with multiple moving air curtains to herd the fish.

Currently, the Intellectual Property for this idea is Patent Pending.

The Olfactory Fish
Herding Project

Fish respond to scent. Different scents excite different fish in different ways at different times. This research project looks at a range of scents and a range of ways that scents can be used to assist fish search for a return path to their natal grounds for mating and reproduction.

The research targets upstream bound anadromous fish in particular and addresses the very important question of how they can they be assisted upstream past dams where they are both attracted to a dead-end large flows from a turbine and to a smaller fish bypass flow. The small flow is often inadequate to attract fish, and this project looks at how can scents be used to speed their entrance to a fish bypass facility.