Have you heard of the fish doorbell?
- Published
You might think doorbells are just for humans but in the Dutch city of Utrecht there's one for fish too!
The Netherlands is a country with lots of canals for people, as well as fish, to travel along.
In spring the lock gates along these canals aren't opened much and this can make it difficult for fish to travel to their breeding grounds.
So the people in charge of the canals set up a digital doorbell - using an underwater camera live streaming to their website so they knew when to open the gates and let the fish through.
The Netherlands has many canals
A canal is a man-made waterway built to allow boats to travel across a country.
Because water can't travel up hill, canals have locks, pairs of gateways that allow boats to move between higher and lower parts of the canal.
When a boat enters a lock, the gate closes behind it and then a sluice gate opens on the other side, allowing the level of water in the lock to change.
Once the water in the lock is the same level as the water on the next part of the canal, the second gate can open and the boat can pass through.
It's been so successful that the doorbell will return next spring too.
Anyone could watch the camera footage online and when they spot a fish at the gates they press the digital doorbell on behalf of the fish and alert the lock keeper. The keeper checks if there are enough fish there to open the gates and the fish can swim on their merry way.
The doorbell has been used thousands and thousands of times over the spring and people all over the world have been taking part and helping the fish.
Smile! Some of the thousands of fish caught on the doorbell camera
The underwater camera showed lots of different fish swimming through including bass, roach and pike. Eels, which are very rare, appeared in front of the camera a few times too.
The people running the fish doorbell say they're also using the camera images to find out more about the types of fish passing through so that they can help improve the quality of underwater life in the city.
- Published6 May 2021
- Published23 March 2021
- Published6 March 2021
