Can Smart Hoses Save Fish Farms from Feathered Foes?

Published by www.israel21c.org on January 1, 2025.

Let’s all agree on something: birds are great, but not when they’re pooping on our stuff.

Obviously, this is true when it comes to windowsills, windshields and birthday parties at the park.

But there are two places where our feathered friends are especially unwelcome: the burgeoning industry of water-based floating solar panel sites, and the many pools that make up the fish-farming industry.

Here, birds can cause all kinds of trouble, by decreasing solar panel efficiency due to a hearty layer of poop, and by eating fish farmers’ livestock — which is problematic for both the farmers and the livestock (though in truth the livestock isn’t facing a long and prosperous future).

For centuries, people have tried many ways to keep pretty but pesky avians away. Yet today, erecting a scarecrow or putting up Mad Max-inspired spike strips on the windowsill isn’t working.

Nobify, a startup in southern Israel’s Negev region, thought outside the (bird)box and created an advanced array of sensors linked to a network of hoses that are suspended over fish farms and floating solar panels arrays.

An AI-powered detection platform identifies the presence of birds and activates the hoses nearest to them. These activated hoses flail around, spraying water to scare birds away.

Keep reading at israel21c.org.

Nobify Co-founder and CTO Eitan Cohen is a Technion alumnus.

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