A team of Michigan State University researchers, including a behavioral ecologist and two engineers, has been commissioned by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) to develop a pioneering selective fish barrier in Traverse City over the next decade. This barrier, called FishPass, aims to be a revolutionary solution for invasive species control. The objective is to create a barrier that can sort and selectively allow desirable fish into the river, while blocking invasive and parasitic species like the sea lamprey.
Michael Wagner, an associate professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife’s Applied Behavioral Ecology Lab, is contributing his expertise on sea lampreys to the project. Concurrently, MSU engineers Xiaobo Tan, an MSU Research Foundation Professor and Richard M. Hong Endowed Chair in electrical engineering, and Nelson Sepulveda, a professor of electrical engineering and interim chairperson of Electrical and Computer Engineering, are developing smart panels that could be utilized in the FishPass system.
The team is collaborating with researchers from other universities and a core group from state and federal organizations, including the U.S. Geological Survey, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
Dr. Tan commented on the collaborative nature of the project, saying, “When we talk about aquatic ecosystems or animals in water, there’s naturally a need for collaboration. You have water experts, you have fish ecology experts, and you have engineers like me. Solving these real-world problems requires partnerships across different disciplines and even different institutions.”
Read more about this groudnreaking project here.