Wired Fish Monitor Water Toxins

boustrophedon writes "First miners used canaries to detect bad air. Now USA Today reports that municipalities monitor water quality by monitoring fish. The Bio-Sensor is a standard rack with eight 500 ml compartments, each containing a fish and a submerged sensor to detect a microvolt level bioelectric field. 'If at least six of the eight show signs of distress [typically due to a toxic condition], the Bio-Sensor sounds an alarm. It immediately saves a sample of the water (for more detailed analysis) while it notifies the humans in charge.'"

Comments

Tech Review

[lysander]

The Technology Review had an article about this (or a similar system) a few months ago. They described the system a bit more -- I believe it's being used to monitor NYC's water. That article also mentions that the fish are only in the monitor for six weeks at a time, which may or may not make you feel better about animal cruelty concerns.

Swimming Sentinels - February 29, 2004
David Talbot
Fish enlisted in protecting water supplies from toxins

This is an automated version of an old idea

[WayneConrad]

This is an automated version of an idea that's been around awhile. When I was doing a computer installation for a water plant in Yuma, Arizona, maybe 8 years ago, I saw a fish tank in the control room. They fed a continuous supply of the plant's water through that tank. If the fish started acting funny or floated upside down, they would know to issue an alert and start testing water quality right now. It wasn't a substitute for laboratory testing of the water, but an adjunct to it. You can only do lab tests every so often, but fish are testing the water all the time.

Even if they won't detect everything, fish are cheap, and that's important to the smaller water plants. Besides, the fish give the plant operator something to look at in between doing preventative maintenance and studying for the certification. Running a water plant is boring.