In a previous blog, I found an article discussing the massive amounts of dead fish that are currently in neighborhood canals because of red tide. Residents have been waiting for weeks for assistance to remove the dead rotting fish from the canals. When the fish die because of the excessive algae bloom, they rise to the surface, bloat from the sun exposure and then emit toxic smells.
County officials have said they are working to solve the issue by hiring contractors, but there is not a very efficient way to collect the dead fish from the water. One news channel showed workers using a net attached to a long poll to scoop the fish from the water and placing them into trash cans. They often can only collect 5-10 fish at one time with this method.
I believe there could be a product to help assist these contractors to speed up the process in order to restore the canals for the sake of both marine life and homeowners along the canals. An idea that could help speed up the process would be to create an attachment for a boat. This attachment could have a net attached to a powered mechanism that can be lowered to scoop up the fish and then have the ability to raise the net onto the boat to empty the net and collect more fish. The net would be attached to a powered crane like pole to raise the net from the water and dump the fish back into the boat for further transportation. This would be a large net catching up to 1000 fish per scoop. With the count of dead fish reaching upwards of 150 tons, this could greatly increase the efficiency of cleanup efforts compared to the current process.
Hi Taylor,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good idea. Cleaning up the coast is important not only for the residents of Florida but for the rest of the wildlife in the ocean. Maybe you could also sell nets that could attach to the boats of the local people. Since the people living around this area are the ones that are pushing for a change, your idea could be marketing towards them.