NEW BEDFORD, Mass., — September 4, 2013 — Contractors on the South Terminal project have an interesting strategy for keeping winter flounder out of the blast range for the controlled underwater explosions scheduled to begin later this month.
The solution is "fish tickling," a system meant to "gently push" the flounder out of the way by dragging chains just above the harbor floor. The chains don't hurt the flounder, but are meant to let them know to move out of the way.
Typically, contractors use a combination of flashing lights and low-frequency sound to scare fish away from blasting sites, Jay Borkland, an engineer with APEX, a harbor consultant, said.
But winter flounder, which are known to spawn at the South Terminal site, are "pretty much deaf and blind," Borkland said, so South Terminal contractors needed a different strategy to warn them of the impending blasts.
"Fish-tickling," said Bill White of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which will own the terminal. "You can't make this stuff up."
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times