The fish doorbell

March 22, 2024 8:18 PM

Welcome to the Fish Doorbell. Will you help fish pass the city boat lock? Every spring fish migrate upstream, in search of places to spawn. They swim through the centre of the city of Utrecht. Unfortunatly, the boat lock is closed during spring. You can help the fish. Do you see a fish? Press the Doorbell! All the photos are collected. When there are enough fish waiting, the lock will be opened. This is the link to a cartoon about it. This is the link to the official doorbell site.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (19 comments total)

it's a joy to see a little bit of classic crowdsourcing internet alive and well even in a computer vision era.
posted by a neat little robot at 9:24 PM on March 22 [4 favorites]

This brings me so much joy
posted by PinkMoose at 9:44 PM on March 22

Very cool
posted by Audreynachrome at 11:10 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]

I am a little bit conflicted, in that normally I would side with the waterbirds, but presumably they are not going hungry.
posted by Audreynachrome at 11:11 PM on March 22

This is what the Weerdsluis looks like.
(It's around the corner from where I live)
posted by jouke at 11:14 PM on March 22 [12 favorites]

Mod note: Noting that this has been flagged as a double, and it's true it was posted a couple of years ago, but when it comes to fish doorbells, the post, man, always rings twice. (Seriously, as a rite of spring, I think we can watch this again!)
posted by taz (staff) at 1:21 AM on March 23 [39 favorites]

There is really no good reason not to post this again. Mods, thanks for allowing the double!
Previously.
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:11 AM on March 23 [3 favorites]

I see they've finally upgraded from fish knockers.
posted by pracowity at 2:33 AM on March 23 [1 favorite]

There were 927 people looking at a blank screen when I checked. How do they deal with the fact that surely at least one of those people sees a button and just has to push it, fish or no fish?
posted by rikschell at 5:11 AM on March 23 [3 favorites]

rikschell, you can just be upfront and say that it was you.

Srsly now: What happens, as far as I know, is that the pictures are collected, and the person who guards the lock keeps an eye on them, and when the pictures show a lot of fish he will go outside and open the lock. It's all rather manual.
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:25 AM on March 23 [2 favorites]

I want to badly to see a fish!
posted by meese at 6:36 AM on March 23 [2 favorites]

Fish! Fish!! I saw a fish!!
posted by meese at 6:58 AM on March 23 [14 favorites]

Metafilter: I think this is true but even if it isn't I've decided it is and nowadays there is no difference between those two things.
posted by jackbishop at 9:07 AM on March 23 [1 favorite]

There are perches around!
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:00 AM on March 23

I love the low lands. Chartered a boat on the canals and rivers of Belgium, some years ago. Locks were lots of fun. Going into the city of Ghent, not so much. Nice place, but boat traffic made it difficult.
posted by Goofyy at 10:35 AM on March 24

Ok wait why doesn't the fish lock operator have a camera on the fish lock cam?
posted by Glinn at 10:48 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]

Glinn: Ok wait why doesn't the fish lock operator have a camera on the fish lock cam?

Because they have other things to do as well, like ambling over to operate the lock (and not just for the fishies), eating and sleeping, reading the Lock Operator News and many more notwatchingascreen activities.
With the entire Internet involved (okay, a couple of hundred viewers) there'll always several pairs of eyeballs watching and spotting nearly all fishy activity, instead of just one pair that'll get tired or distracted.
posted by Stoneshop at 11:36 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]

Someone shared this link elsewhere with a really cheering observation:

"No matter how irredeemably bad the Internet is and people are today, you can be comforted by the thought that at any minute of every day, about a couple hundred people are standing by and waiting to help out fish in a country they've never seen."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:28 PM on March 26 [2 favorites]

Mod note: We're always welcoming to your fish friends in the sidebar and Best Of blog!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:00 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]