Vision system monitors fish populations
Off-the-shelf components combine with an image-processing library and custom code to count migrating fish.
Counting the types and numbers of migrating fish is very important to help manage the protection of endangered species and fish harvesting. Areas such as the Columbia River Basin in the US Pacific Northwest spend considerable money on this task. There are 12 mainstem dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers that report daily fish counts and two dams on the Yakima River. Additional fish-counting facilities exist on other river tributaries, as well.