Fiskvandring – Fish migration in Stornorrfors

Salmon migrating upstream at Norrfors fish ladder (19-09-2013) (Screen shot – live camera: http://fiskevatten.vattenfall.se/fiskvandring-i-stornorrfors/

For those of you that are interested in real-time ecology, probably this the following video is worth to see. This is a project of the swedish energy company Vattenfall, stakeholder and others, that installed one of the most modern fish ladders in Europe in Norrfors at the River Ume. The fish ladder is 300 m long and consist of 76 steps. So far over 16000 fish (Salmon) migrated upstream this year (2013-09-16). To monitor the upstream migration they PIT-tagged fish, use Radio-telemetry and also installed a video camera in one the the pools of the fish ladder. On their website, more information about the monitoring program is provided and you can watch the really fascinating underwater live video where Salmon are regularly swimming upstream:

http://fiskevatten.vattenfall.se/fiskvandring-i-stornorrfors/

Fancy a flutter? – I bet this fish will make it!

Some finnish colleagues pointed me to this interesting project:

Project FishRun

The idea behind FishRun is to make people and companies aware about near distinct stocks of native salmon, the importance of the longitudinal connectivity of rivers and unimpeded spawning migration of salmonids and especially the Salmon itself.

The tool they use to raise this awarness and to disseminate scientific information is to see fish migration as a competative sport event someone can bet on. Therefore Scientist equipped fish with radio transmitters for observing the movements during their migration upstream in the river to spawn. Moreover people and companies can bet on a single fish buy and their name for their own Grand Prix start of a “racing fish”. I think that’s a really clever idea to combine the fun of gambling and betting with the benefit for ecological topics and the funding of science.

On their website they post during racing times regulary news (also in english). Unfortunately most of the project website and some interesting games and apps to follow your personal “racing fish” on your smartphone are in finnish. However a great idea.

fishrun-newsinenglish: Project FishRun – I bet this fish will make it!.