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Salmon are well known for making long and arduous journeys to return to the lakes where they were born. These journeys are often fraught with peril, especially where their migratory paths intersect with human traffic, as the linked video illustrates.
The design of this crossing is clearly suboptimal
for both fish and driver. The driver has to proceed slowly and with great care through the inch or so of water covering the road, and the fish is constantly at risk of coming to serious harm from the driver's wheels.
To ensure the safety and security of both parties I propose that a fully automatic level crossing should be built. Sensors detect the presence of a fish waiting to cross the road and activate the lowering barrier, which stops the cars, followed by the pump system which delivers a sufficient flow of water to ensure that all the fish are able to flip and squirm their way to the other side in safety.
Once the fish have cleared the crossing, the pumps are stopped, and the water is allowed to drain away before the road barrier is raised and the signal turns green to allow the patient driver to proceed.
The existing design...
http://www.kval.com....html?tab=video&c=y
...is a bit inadequate, in my view. [Wrongfellow, Dec 18 2011]
[link]
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Because it stops the cars when it detects the
presence of a
fish, rather than vice versa, [+]. And to thank you
for
that link. |
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I'm not sure the video is showing a ford, more of a river in flood maybe. |
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The idea is sound in principle though, then again, by the time you've installed all this equipment to adjust river behaviour, detect fish and control drivers, you could just have built a bridge across the river! [+/-] |
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You are right [skrewloose] it is not a ford. It is a Toyota. I will also bet my Christmas presents this year that [Wrongfellow] is quite aware of the nature of the flooding. (I'd make a cattlegrid type design with tall enough grids perpendicular to the road way allowing water to flow between then for the fish yet high enough for vehicles to drive on the road) |
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Cool link [Wrongfellow] + You'd get the bun just for "Don't grind the fish; pour water over them." |
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What's wrong with a simple culvert? |
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Too simple for the HB - obviously. |
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Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. I've had a hard day. |
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Yes, it's a flood, and yes, a bridge or culvert would be the solution (if it was a permanent fixture). |
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I just watched the video and had a mental image I thought was worth sharing, and the HB seemed like the most appropriate place to put it. |
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If you could only get them to push the crosswalk button first... |
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Sorry to rain on your parade, [Wrongfellow]. I must have
forgotten where I was for a minute. |
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C'mon [Alterother]. A culvert wouldn't work because the
fish couldn't stick their heads up to breath. Duh. |
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At the risk of giving a serious answer to a tongue-in-cheek
posting, with the high rate of water flow demonstrated, a
culvert of normal diameter could well have too high of flow
rate for the salmon to overcome in one go. |
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I must confess to not having watched the bandwidth. We
have limited bandwidth. I know what you mean about
culverts and floods, though, so my interest in this idea is
renewed. |
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Will this not tend to attract bears, or (even worse, from a motorcyclist's point of view) White-tailed deer ? |
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And a snack, as well, no doubt. |
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Those are Chum salmon if anybody is interested and doesn't already know about the 5 (6 counting Japan) types of pacific salmon. Not the greatest eating for humans but most bears are more than happy to eat their chum. |
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