Today we visited the Fish Hatchery for the third time to present our prototype to them, test it out, and receive some feedback. We met with Shane Hanlon, the Hatchery Manager, and explained how our prototype would work. Here are his comments:
- The increased frequency of feeding with the automated feeder would enhance the growth and survivability of the shad.
- The belt on the feeder has to move very slowly to gradually dispense the food over the course of the day. Depending on the strength of the water current on the waterwheel, we may have to add a gear box to slow down the belt.
- The belt has to be kept dry so that the fish food doesn't stick to it. Wet food is also less attractive to the shad and could encourage fungal growth
Shane also explained to us that the main reason why shad and other fish are declining in the wild is because of the dams on many rivers that prevent their migrations. During breeding season, the shad have to migrate upstream from the ocean to breed in the freshwater rivers, but their way is often blocked by dams. Current solutions are only so effective, as they involve using an attraction flow to corral the fish into an elevator that then brings the fish up the dam. Often, the fish are faced with a lake at the top of the dam and have trouble navigating it to reach the rest of the river. When the fish hatch and migrate back downstream, the dams again block their way. Many of the fish end up swimming through the turbines and getting sliced up, resulting in less than 75% of them making their way through the turbines and back to the ocean. The shad are also faced with pollution, fishing, and natural predation that further increase their decline.
The difficulties that shad face in the wild highlight just how important the hatchery's work is. The shad that our feeder is designed for are one of the only groups of shad that are being raised in captivity. Shane even mentioned that the current shad are an experiment to see how long they can survive in a hatchery habitat, something that hasn't yet been studied. The shad, however, won't be released like the other fish at the hatchery because they've adapted to the hatchery and won't do as well in the wild.
At the end of our visit, Shane showed us the belt feeders that the hatchery are using for some of their other fish tanks. They work using a mechanical system set on a timer that slowly retracts a belt, letting the food that was on the belt fall into the water. The problem with these, however, is that they break after a while and are troublesome to fix. Our automated fish feeder just might do the trick!
- The increased frequency of feeding with the automated feeder would enhance the growth and survivability of the shad.
- The belt on the feeder has to move very slowly to gradually dispense the food over the course of the day. Depending on the strength of the water current on the waterwheel, we may have to add a gear box to slow down the belt.
- The belt has to be kept dry so that the fish food doesn't stick to it. Wet food is also less attractive to the shad and could encourage fungal growth
Shane also explained to us that the main reason why shad and other fish are declining in the wild is because of the dams on many rivers that prevent their migrations. During breeding season, the shad have to migrate upstream from the ocean to breed in the freshwater rivers, but their way is often blocked by dams. Current solutions are only so effective, as they involve using an attraction flow to corral the fish into an elevator that then brings the fish up the dam. Often, the fish are faced with a lake at the top of the dam and have trouble navigating it to reach the rest of the river. When the fish hatch and migrate back downstream, the dams again block their way. Many of the fish end up swimming through the turbines and getting sliced up, resulting in less than 75% of them making their way through the turbines and back to the ocean. The shad are also faced with pollution, fishing, and natural predation that further increase their decline.
The difficulties that shad face in the wild highlight just how important the hatchery's work is. The shad that our feeder is designed for are one of the only groups of shad that are being raised in captivity. Shane even mentioned that the current shad are an experiment to see how long they can survive in a hatchery habitat, something that hasn't yet been studied. The shad, however, won't be released like the other fish at the hatchery because they've adapted to the hatchery and won't do as well in the wild.
At the end of our visit, Shane showed us the belt feeders that the hatchery are using for some of their other fish tanks. They work using a mechanical system set on a timer that slowly retracts a belt, letting the food that was on the belt fall into the water. The problem with these, however, is that they break after a while and are troublesome to fix. Our automated fish feeder just might do the trick!