Pacific Northwest Lab's Sensor-Packed Fish Gauges Hydropower Facilities 28
coondoggie writes Sometimes it takes a fish to do a man's job. Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a sensor-laden, synthetic Sensor Fish that can be used to swim into hydropower facilities like dams to evaluate structures and other environmental systems. Using Sensor Fish, PNNL researchers say they can measure the various forces juvenile salmon experience as they pass through dams. The Sensor Fish initially was designed to evaluate dams equipped with a common type of turbine along the Columbia River, the Kaplan turbine. The pressure change, they found, is akin to traveling from sea level to the top of Mount Everest in blink of an eye.
I've worked with PNNL... (Score:3, Informative)
As a result, I have a very low opinion of their competencies. Even if RoboFish (TM) does provide accurate data, I have no reason to expect it will be analyzed correctly.
As for the bit about the pressure change, they observed a change of roughly half an atmosphere in a (distance not disclosed) of (direction not disclosed) swimming. For those of you who swim, that is very similar to the difference from descending 5 feet. For some creatures, that would be fairly dramatic. For most sea-life, that's an evasive maneuver.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
From my scuba diving days, I recall that 1ATM of pressure is 33 feet in depth rather than 10.
Re:I've worked with PNNL... (Score:5, Informative)
16.5 feet, not 5.
You gain 1 atmosphere of pressure for every 33 feet (10 meters) you go down. That's nothing for scuba diving or free diving. Heck probably more common than not for anybody going off the high dive at a pool to hit 16.5 feet in the blink of an eye.
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Looks like a unit selection error. Probably safe to assume that it should've been 5 meters in the root post.
um (Score:5, Informative)
So for those that don't measure pressure in Mt Everest's... It's 33% of sea level. So the turbine cuts the water pressure to 1/3rd
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Or by 10psi. They're not clear whether it's relative or absolute.
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I believe its by 22 Olympic swimming pools to the power of 3 libraries of congress myself.
It's a hoax (Score:1)
Obligatory UPL Content (Score:2)
From the early days of the WWW... :-)
http://www.tazerfish.com/ [tazerfish.com]
No problemo (Score:4, Funny)
That's not a problem since fishes can't blink.
So its like coming up from 66ft deep to 40ft deep (Score:2)
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I haven't read the original article, but I'll display my ignorance anyway. There are two ways one could interpret moving from sea level to the top of Mt. Everest: as an absolute pressure change, or as a relative change. The atmospheric pressure at the top of Mt Everest is 33% of sea level (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest#Death_zone), which is a difference of 14.7psi*0.67 = 9.85psi. At the same time it's a relative change of 67%, i.e. the pressure at the top of Everest is 33% of the pressure at
Pressure change (Score:1)
Can't get much power without it.
Wait a minute... Wouldn't they have known the pressure differential across various parts when they designed the dam? And like one of the above replies, the numbers mean little by themselves. You have to put bluetooth electrodes on the salmon's tiny little brain to see what he thinks about the dam while going through it and trying not being turned into chum.
Air Pressure vs Force (Score:2)
That's not good. (Score:2)
I live in that neighborhood (PNNL is here); the "poor" Salmon folks are trying to break down a few damns, Bush
even made a trip out to look at "Ice harbor" dam.
The fish ladders allow the Salmon to migrate and been the main concern, this news is just bad.
The Dams need to stay for the cheap energy they produce, and they are good places to visit at
times (fish viewing window) to see the migration; a few fish to lots. 9-11 they blocked access to
the viewing area, but are open now and a good place to take the kids.
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Except [sciencemag.org] they [scientificamerican.com] don't [internationalrivers.org]. That's the problem [yale.edu].
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I for one hate the idea of having the snake and columbia rivers being navigable by anything larger than tom sawyer's raft. All that recreation, shipping, irrigation, and flood control stuff is just dumb.
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The Elwha dam removal [nps.gov] project may turn out to be a shot in the foot of all the fish people.
For years, we have all been taught, and regulations and law have been made based upon the 'science' that salmon are unique to individual tributaries. In fact, the claim is that each local population is a unique species (because language in Endangered Species Act is set up to protect unique species). But then the Elwha dams came down. And the newly wild stretches of river are being repopulated by salmon. Not the same
Specs (Score:2)
"Users interact with the Sensor Fish via communication software developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with the serial port configured to 921.6 kbps, 8 data bits, 1 start bit, 1 stop bit, and no parity."
While I shouldn't complain about news reports that include specs, I'm not sure if I need every last detail into start / stop bits and parity of the communications protocol....
someone set us up the fish (Score:2)
Dammit ScyFy, you better send me my royalties on this!
Who did what to what? (Score:2)
Who packed the fish gauge with sensors?
What happens when ... (Score:2)