Aquaculture growth has been accelerated by new technologies that enable farmers to operate more efficiently. There is currently a shift in the industry to smart technology that uses artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics to predict and provide insights into a wide array of farm operations. This concept, commonly known as precision aquaculture, aims to improve the ability of farmers to monitor, control and document all factors affecting fish production and fine tune operational decisions to achieve better efficiencies and higher profits. Despite finfish aquaculture having the lowest feed conversion ratios among agriculture species - there are still improvements that can be made if decisions are based on knowledge from data rather than subjective experiences.
One of the best applications of this technology centers around feeding. Feeding is central to all farm operations and the concept of data-supported feeding is to consider all parameters that impact not only when to feed, but how much and at what rate. Feed is the highest operating cost so small efficiency improvements happening daily can result in significant financial savings over the long-term. Biomass cameras that can sample hundreds of fish in a few hours to provide high accuracy estimates can help operators better determine how much feed is required. Underwater camera networks with fish satiation algorithms can assess feed demand on a second-by-second basis from a variety of behavioral indices and automated pellet detection and alert operators when to slow down or stop feeding.
A data-supported feeding program or farm management system would be able to assess all available data instantly and provide direction to any operator on the recommended feeding times and rates. These emerging technologies are currently being developed and validated at commercial farms and put into regular operation. While many of these developments are focused on the production of Atlantic Salmon, the diversity of farmed species continues to grow, especially in the open ocean and warm water environments. The progress that is made in the salmon industry will pave the way for the culturing of new species but only if best practices are digitized and the lessons learned through trial and error with salmon are applied to new species. The adoption of precision aquaculture is an important step for the successful growth of existing and future finfish aquaculture.