Soaring 100 feet above the river at speeds up to 20 mph, spring chinook were shooting through a tube designed to carry salmon over dams in seconds, at far lower cost and faster construction than traditional fish ladders.

“We’re pretty excited about the possibility of using this type of technology; it’s such an efficient way to move fish,” said Walt Larrick, project manager with the Bureau of Reclamation, which has pledged to build fish passage at the five dams it operates in the Yakima Basin.

Nicknamed the “Salmon Cannon,” the system is basically a flexible sleeve that seals around each salmon so that only a small amount of air pressure is needed to fling the fish. A biologist at Roza Dam’s fish collection facility feeds them into the tube, and about 35 seconds later, they land in a hatchery truck parked 1,100 feet upriver.