Smart - Fish Lift System
Access to spawning and juvenile habitats for fish is now a permanent feature of European and national policy. However, in many cases, a water system can no longer do without water management objects. Due to climate change, subsidence and rising sea levels, more and more water management systems have to be put in place by the water managers, putting the naturally free fish migration routes under pressure and almost completely disappearing.
Research has shown that fish in Europe `hit their noses` against an object or barrier on average every kilometre. This has contributed to the fact that fish (species) stocks have declined enormously and that there are even fish species that are threatened with extinction. This while the population growth is increasing and the improvement of the fish stock is of explicit social and ecological importance.
In practice, existing fish passages do not always deliver the desired results. They are often clogged with dirt, the passages are closed or open too far. Due to the fluctuation of the water level within the target levels, the traditional fish passages almost never have the right fish migration flow rate. On the other hand, the flow rate in the fish passage is very accurate; after all, a fish passage is an attempt to mimic a natural fish migration.
The Smart Fish Lift provides the solution to the current challanges in fish migration plus the added intelligence enables water quality control and expanding our knowledge of our underwater world.