You can ring this ‘fish doorbell’ to help marine life in the Netherlands

Want to do some good for fish in need?  

Then, head to visdeurbel.nl — which literally means “fishdoorbell.nl” in Dutch.

It’s a “doorbell” set up by the municipal government of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, and the Waterboard De Stichtse Rijnlanden, to help fish get through a lock in a local canal and reach their destinations. 

Anne Nijs is an urban ecologist for the city of Utrecht who worked on creating the doorbell in 2021.

She explained that people can go to the program’s website and watch a livestream of the fish underwater — and then, if they spot a fish, they can click to “ring” the fish doorbell to nudge someone to go and open the lock by hand.

Otherwise, fish swimming upstream have to wait a long time for the 200-year-old lock to be opened, which makes them vulnerable to prey, Nijs said.

Nijs said that for those who want to help the fish, mid-April is the best time of the season to go fish-doorbelling.

To hear the full interview, click on the audio player above.