Federal wildlife officials have been using a "salmon cannon" to help transport migratory fish in Washington. The unusual device uses a vacuum-like tube to capture fish, putting them into a truck to be taken to other hatchery locations.

Using just enough water to be smooth enough for the fish, the 120-foot-long tube is part of the Whooshh Fish Transport System recently purchased by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife for $150,000, the Associated Press reported.

"It's not a column of water," described Todd Deligan, Whooshh's vice president, as quoted by the AP. "It's a wet column of air."

When the fish pass through the cannon, they are placed into a truck waiting at the top of a hill. Each salmon takes just four to six seconds to travel the tube, which was developed using an earlier Whooshh system that transported fruit.

"It's definitely much more efficient" compared with earlier methods of moving fish to new locations, said Elise Olk, a WDFW scientific technician who assisted with moving salmon on Tuesday, as quoted by the AP. "It's less handling for the fish, too."

The Whooshh system is intended to reduce the need for totes, pallets, ice and forklifts while also lowering costs and saving time and labor. Fish often need to be shifted from processing plants, farm sites, hatcheries or dams to other locations, and Whooshh is designed to move them in a safe and cost-effective manner, said a company press release.

The best way to describe the new means of fish transportation?

"It's like a Slip'N Slide going uphill," Whooshh CEO Vincent Bryan III told the AP. 

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