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.-- Wrongfellow, Dec 18 2011 The existing design... http://www.kval.com....html?tab=video&c=y...is a bit inadequate, in my view. [Wrongfellow, Dec 18 2011] Because it stops the cars when it detects the presence of a fish, rather than vice versa, [+]. And to thank you for that link.-- mouseposture, Dec 18 2011 I'm not sure the video is showing a ford, more of a river in flood maybe.
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! [+/-]-- Skrewloose, Dec 20 2011 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)
Cool link [Wrongfellow] + You'd get the bun just for "Don't grind the fish; pour water over them."-- AusCan531, Dec 20 2011 What's wrong with a simple culvert?-- Alterother, Dec 20 2011 Too simple for the HB - obviously.-- AusCan531, Dec 20 2011 Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. I've had a hard day.-- Alterother, Dec 20 2011 Yes, it's a flood, and yes, a bridge or culvert would be the solution (if it was a permanent fixture).
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.-- Wrongfellow, Dec 20 2011 If you could only get them to push the crosswalk button first...-- RayfordSteele, Dec 20 2011 Sorry to rain on your parade, [Wrongfellow]. I must have forgotten where I was for a minute.-- Alterother, Dec 20 2011 C'mon [Alterother]. A culvert wouldn't work because the fish couldn't stick their heads up to breath. Duh.
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.-- AusCan531, Dec 20 2011 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.-- Alterother, Dec 20 2011 Will this not tend to attract bears, or (even worse, from a motorcyclist's point of view) White-tailed deer ?-- 8th of 7, Dec 20 2011 And a snack, as well, no doubt.-- Alterother, Dec 21 2011 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.-- AusCan531, Dec 21 2011 random, halfbakery