Innovation
Giant leap Individual farming concept will remove ‘lice collectors’ and cut mortality rates by 75%, says inventor
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NEW farming concept based on sensor recognition of individual fish will reduce the need for sea lice treatment and cut mortality rates by up to 75 per cent, claims one of its inventors. The iFarm, developed by the engineering expertise of Oslo based BioSort in partnership with salmon farmer Cermaq, is now hoping the Directorate of Fisheries will approve all 10 of its licence applications. Late last year, the team learnt that the iFarm was within the scope of the Norwegian development licences system, but that only four licences would be approved. They appealed because, as BioSort CEO Geir Hauge said, ‘we think we have very good reasons for why 10 are needed’, and expect a decision soon. In the meantime, the system is undergoing further small scale trials in sea pens, having proved itself in the first round of tests. ‘We’ve done enough initial trials to assure ourselves that this is all doable, but a lot of this will be developed within the development licence scheme because we really need a large scale setting to get enough exposure of a variety of biological and environmental variations,’ said Hauge. The iFarm will transform fish farming from stock management to individualised farming, say BioSort and Cermaq, by monitoring each fish in the pen without handling. ‘The key feature is that we can follow each individual fish, which is primarily done by looking at the spot pattern on the fish and some other features,’ said Hauge. ‘Then we can build a library of the individuals that live in the pen.’ In the iFarm, salmon are kept deeper in the cage, below the lice level, by a cage ‘roof’. When they periodically head to the surface to fill their swim bladder, they are directed, via a funnel, through a chamber fitted with cameras and sensors. This can detect sea lice, disease, lesions and others aspects that affect the health and welfare of the fish. And, crucially, it is possible to then separate the fish that need treatment- for example, against sea lice.
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‘We believe we can do a lot on sea lice with the combination of keeping the fish below the sea lice belt with this roof cage,’ said Hauge. ‘But also when you have healthier fish with less handling then the fish are less receptive to lice. ‘A lot of the lice are on a few fish in the beginning – what you call lice collectors, fish that attract a lot of lice and are the basis for further growth of lice in the pen. If you can remove those early it makes a big difference.’ Hauge is one of three former employees of Oslo listed Tomra, a global developer and supplier of high tech sensor systems, behind BioSort, the others being Svein Idso and Bernt Saugen. This is their first aquaculture venture. ‘We developed the iFarm project and were ready to talk to people about it two and a half years ago,’ said Hauge. ‘We visited several fish farmers and other players in the industry, both to learn more and also to find a partner, specifically to apply for these development licences. ‘We got a fantastic reception everywhere we went. There are people who have spent their whole career in the industry, and obviously we haven’t, so they would talk about this being a moon landing or a paradigm shift. And they started generating their own ideas. ‘We’re helped by the fact that our approach is so radical; that in itself creates interest because it’s so different.’ The concept took about a year to develop and a year and a half ago they started the first small scale
Above: BioSort founders Geir Stang Hauge, Svein Idso and Bernt Saugen; how the iFarm will look. Left: Control of growth rate and fish welfare indicators during small scale tests
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com
04/06/2018 16:36:16