Merck Animal Health's Hyper InfusiO₂n™-2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. If someone said they had a better plan for protecting salmon that didn’t involve removal of Snake River dams, would you be interested?
Merck Animal Health has a new solution called Hyper InfusiO2n that, according to project lead Chris Beasley, has shown an whopping 442% improvement in oxygen levels in and around fish ladders…
BEASLEY … “Certainly on our ability to increase the oxygen in the water without altering total gas pressure. You know, that’s very well proven up, both in applied real-world environments and also in the laboratory.”
And, a 1200% increase in fish passage over a 4-year period …
BEASLEY … “We can’t say that that was 100% due to the installation of these systems, but we can say it that we did see a 10-fold decrease in mortality. And we know that that occurred after installation of the system and despite the fact that we saw a 1200% increase in fish passage. So that, we are confident, is a direct result of implementation of the system.”
Besides salmon benefits, Beasley says, it would be much more cost effective than removing dams …
BEASLEY … “Even if, you know, as a society, there is a move to change to these alternate forms of electricity, I mean, it’s going to be a while before we get there. So, even if that’s the decision that we were to make, it would take time to ramp up those resources. So, I think in the interim, this is certainly a good way to maintain healthy fish populations while we get to that point.”
Merck is looking for an opportunity to install the Hyper InfusiO2n system on at least one of the Snake River dams.
