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Home | FishTick Interface | Products | Trial Version | Our Users | Who are we? | Contact Us | |
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Salmonsoft | |
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Welcome to the home page of Salmonsoft The creator of
FishTick, a computerized video system to allow fisheries biologists to
easily estimate fish passage at fish viewing stations at dams and weirs.
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- What is FishTick?
- Who should use FishTick?
- How does FishTick work?
- What equipment is required to use FishTick?
- Who is using FishTick?
- For further information
FishTick combines video and computer technology (Hatch et al. 1998) to simplify the task of counting fish at dams and weirs. Anyone who has sat at a fish viewing window at a dam, or in front of a monitor reviewing tapes of fish passage, knows that counting fish can be a very tedious job. Often there is hour after hour of no fish passage, greatly increasing the possibility of those rare fish passing being missed. FishTick only presents to the reviewer those images likely to contain passing fish. The reviewer can quickly scan through the images of possible fish passage, selecting the species. The information is automatically categorized by date, time, and species, and placed in the appropriate position in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
Anyone who is trying to count fish at a dam or weir where video equipment can be installed to monitor fish passage. FishTick greatly reduces the amount of video which must be reviewed. It also provides an interface where fish counts are placed directly into a customizable Excel spreadsheet, decreasing the time required for data entry while also eliminating the possibility of errors in transcribing data. FishTick also allows managers to subsample the times in which fish counted if it is not necessary to record every fish. FishTick can also be set to record the time of passage for every fish making it easy to develop subsampling schemes. Finally, FishTick can incorporate temperature and PIT tag codes into the video record.
Fish Tick consists of two components, a video capture program and a video review program.
The video capture program takes video images of fish passage, either as recorded on site, or from those recorded on video tape or video (AVI) file, and determines whether fish are present. Fish images are stored as a video file on a hard drive, removable hard drive, or flash drive. Also stored in the video file is information on the time of fish passage. The user also has the option of recording all video frames, while only reviewing those frames with fish passage. The ability to subsample by only recording during certain times is also included.
The video review program allows the user to quickly scan through the video file, using the mouse or keyboard to tally species. The ability to subsample, by only looking at portions of the file, is also included. Fish counts are stored in an Excel spreadsheet organized by date and time.
What computer equipment is required to use FishTick?
Video Capture program: Exact requirements are dependent on the number of frames per second that must be captured and the detection algorithm used. For optimum performance, we recommend a minimum of a dual core computer running at 2.0 ghz with a suitable video capture device, a minimum of 2 GB of RAM, running Windows XP (preferred) or Windows Vista. The recommended video board is the Plextor PX-AV200U. The capture program can also accept video from Firewire (IEEE-1394) adapters or from MPEG or AVI files.
Video Review program: Minimum requirements are a dual core computer running at 2.0 ghz, 2 GB of RAM running Windows XP (preferred) or Vista with Microsoft Excel installed. A minimum 19" monitor is recommended.
Who is currently using FishTick?
- Michigan Department of Natural Resources at three fish counting stations at dams in southwestern Michigan.
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service at a weir on the Pere Marquette River, Michigan.
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Bering Sea Fisherman's Association and the Yukon River fish wheel operators at fish wheels in Alaska.
- United States Forest Service at fish ladders in Southeast Alaska.
- Eugene Water and Electric Board at Leaburg Dam on the McKenzie River, Oregon.
- EAWAG at a fish ladder on the Reuss River, Switzerland.
- Environment Agency Wales at numerous sites.
- Fish ladders at several dams in the Connecticut River Valley.
Salmonsoft
5810 SW Idaho Street
Portland, OR 97221-1628
503-705-0049
E-mail: info@wecountfish.com
References:
Haro, A. and J. K. Fryer. 2006. Evaluation of Salmonsoft FishTick/FishRev digital video fish counting system for use at fish counting facilities in eastern North America. Draft Report. U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Discipline. Silvio O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center, Turners Falls, MA.
Hatch, D.R; Wand, A.; Porter, A.; Schwartzberg, M. 1992. The feasibility of estimating sockeye salmon escapement at Zosel Dam using underwater video technology: annual progress report. Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
Hatch, D.R., J.K. Fryer, M. Schwartzberg, D.R. Pederson, and A. Wand. 1998. A computerized editing system for video monitoring of fish passage. North American Jounal of Fisheries Management. 18: 694-199.