Hundreds of surrogate "fish" will be put to work at dams around the world through an agreement between ATS - Advanced Telemetry Systems - and the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to improve operations and increase sustainability.
PNNL developed the Sensor Fish to understand what happens to fish as they pass through turbulent waters and turbines at hydroelectric facilities. The Sensor Fish is a small autonomous device filled with sensors that analyze the physical stressors that fish, such as juvenile salmon, experience when passing through or around dams.
The technology was recently licensed to ATS through a process known as technology transfer, which enables federally-funded research to be made commercially available.
Read more at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Image: PNNL's Sensor Fish has been licensed to ATS, which will manufacture the acoustic sensors for use in studies of fish traveling through dams worldwide, along with injectable tracking devices. CREDIT: PNNL