Viewers are glued to an underwater livestream meant to help fish migration in the Netherlands. Devotees welcome the distraction — and the chance to

Tired of Doomscrolling? Try Ringing a Doorbell for Fish.

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2024-03-29 15:30:03

Viewers are glued to an underwater livestream meant to help fish migration in the Netherlands. Devotees welcome the distraction — and the chance to help a fish get frisky.

When friends visit Aliza Haskal’s apartment in Syracuse, N.Y., she offers them gripping entertainment: a live feed from a camera six feet below the surface of a cloudy river in the Netherlands.

As soon as a fish glides by, Ms. Haskal hurries to press the website’s sole button. It is a doorbell — specifically, a doorbell for fish.

The button helps alert a worker in the Dutch city of Utrecht to crank open a dam, allowing the fish to wriggle toward shallower water where it can spawn.

“It’s Utrecht’s hottest sex club, accessible via fish doorbell,” said Ms. Haskal, a 24-year-old graduate student who lives more than 3,000 miles away. She thinks of herself as a kind of benevolent aquatic bouncer.

The livestream, a modest municipal project to assist fish migration, has become an unexpected hit far beyond Utrecht. In the four years since its debut, it has drawn an international audience eager to help frisky Dutch fish reach warmer waters.