China is using an artificial intelligence-driven fish identification system to conduct round-the-clock tracking of species passing along a fishway on a dam on Tibet’s largest river.
Monitoring the route once relied on labour-intensive manual counts, but it now uses an AI-based “fish facial recognition” system to identify species unique to China’s Tibet autonomous region.
Using sonar and optical technologies, the system identifies species, counts fish and analyses characteristics including swimming posture and fin features, achieving 95 per cent accuracy. It also records migration timing and water temperature to assess the effectiveness of the fishway. The resulting information is shared with research institutes and other hydropower facilities in China.
The monitoring results indicate that the fish population in the middle reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River is very stable and has not decreased because of the construction of the Zangmu Hydropower Station, a 400-metre, 510-megawatt hydroelectric project. In fact, the aquatic ecology and animal-plant life in the entire middle gorge section of the river have shown positive changes.
Hydropower facilities can pose significant environmental challenges due to the restructuring of natural water bodies. Hydro dams can block fish from moving along their natural migratory pathways between feeding and spawning which interferes with population reproduction.
To reduce the impact of the Zangmu hydro dam on aquatic species, the structure includes a fish ladder (or fishway) designed specifically for local conditions. The ‘ladder’ is built with a gentle incline to accommodate local cold-water species. A series of low steps or pools slows down rushing water to an optimal flow speed which allows fish to swim upstream gradually.
Seven fish species unique to the river pass through the fish ladder, including protected species such as Glyptosternon maculatum, a catfish found at high altitudes. Since the 116-metre-tall Zangmu Hydropower Station began operating on the middle reaches of the river in 2015, the fish ladder, has helped around 570,000 rare fish swim upstream.
When completed, the fishway was the largest and highest-altitude project of its kind in China and demonstrated that fishways could be constructed for dams more than 40 metres high.
Sources:
South China Morning Post, Aug 10, 2026. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3363112/china-using-ai-facial-id-track-migrating-fish-tibets-largest-river
TibetOL, (reprinted from Global Times), Aug 18, 2026. https://en.tibetol.cn/2026/08/05/2fe893490a554b2d9375516f3d5a4e60.html
The Free Library, Aug 10, 2026. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/China+Uses+AI+Facial+Recognition+to+Track+Migrating+Fish+in+Tibet.-a0898934636
