The Fish Doorbell
People are ringing a doorbell to open an underwater gate and let fish swim through. You can try it!
Photo courtesy of Visdeurbel
A man opens a canal lock in Utrecht, Netherlands, so fish can swim through. People can ring an online doorbell to ask him to do this.
Ding, dong! Who’s at the door? It’s a fish!
If you’re thinking, “Hold on, fish can’t ring doorbells!” you’re right. Fish can’t ring doorbells without help. But one city has created a clever kind of doorbell to help fish swim safely through a series of waterways called canals.
Utrecht is a city in the Netherlands, a country in Europe that has a lot of canals. People use the canals to ship things between cities. Gates, called locks, run across the canals and help ensure each canal has the same water level for the ships.
The locks are helpful for humans, but they’re a problem for the fish that swim through the canals each spring to reach the places where they lay eggs. When a fish encounters a lock that’s shut, it’s like running into a closed door. Trapped in front of a lock, the fish are in danger. Birds or other fish could eat them. The fish need help opening the door and getting through the lock.
Officials in Utrecht came up with the Fish Doorbell to help the fish get through a lock in the middle of the city.
The Fish Doorbell is a website showing an underwater livestream. When a fish swims up to the camera, it shows up on the website. Viewers watching the livestream can ring the Fish Doorbell. Ding, dong! The doorbell will notify the lock keeper to open the lock so that the fish can swim safely through the canal. In Dutch, the language people speak in the Netherlands, the Fish Doorbell is called the Visdeurbel.
Photo courtesy of Visdeurbel
The Fish Doorbell website uses an underwater camera to show users whether there’s a fish at the gate.
Anne Nijs is a city environmental worker. She told the NL Times that the fish cannot take other routes through the city. They must use this canal and pass through the lock. “It is actually the only way fish can reach other waters,” she said.
Though the Fish Doorbell is located in the Netherlands, people from all over the world can watch the livestream and ring the doorbell. Last year 2.7 million viewers around the world watched the livestream and used the doorbell to help the fish migrate!
As the water warms up during the spring, more and more fish will start arriving at the lock. Viewers can spot perch, pike, and eels among the fish. The Fish Doorbell will operate throughout the spring fish migration period—from March until the end of May.
You can watch for fish and ring the doorbell at the Visdeurbel website.
