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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Leetown, West Virginia » Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #329382
Research Project: Developing and Refining Technologies for Sustainable Fish Growth in Closed Containment Systems

Location: Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture Research

Title: Novel air-based system transfers large salmon during harvest

Author
item SUMMERFELT, STEVEN - Freshwater Institute
item MAY, TRAVIS - Freshwater Institute
item CROUSE, CURTIS - Freshwater Institute
item MCNIGHT, JEANNE - Whoosh Innovations
item BRYAN III, VINCENT - Whoosh Innovations

Submitted to: Global Aquaculture Advocate
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/6/2015
Publication Date: 11/1/2015
Citation: Summerfelt, S.T., May, T., Crouse, C. 2015. Novel air-based system transfers large salmon during harvest. Global Aquaculture Advocate. 18(6): 69-70.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: In April of 2015, near the end of our last harvest of 4-6 kg Atlantic salmon, we evaluated an exciting new fish transport technology from Whooshh Innovations (Bellevue, WA) that uses air to move live Atlantic salmon from our growout tank to a finishing/purging tank. The Whooshh system uses a combination of air to first gently pull and then push the salmon through a flexible tube, without more than a splash of water to lubricate the tube, to substantially increase the distance, height and speed that these large harvest size salmon can be transferred. The plastic tube was installed rather quickly, considering it was a first attempt, using a wire cable that suspended the plastic tube that carried the salmon from the end of the fish pump at the growout tank to the finishing/purging tanks. Unlike gravity feed fish transfer pipes, the Whooshh system can move fish up and over equipment taking advantage of the unused space above the floor and equipment. Because the Whooshh Fish Transport System moves fish with air, we didn’t have to worry about returning all of the water that goes with traditional fish pumps.