Successful sorting of fish in iFarm project to improve health

 

Cermaq's iFarm project, which seeks to incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide a more detailed overview of farmed fish health and welfare, has overseen the success of testing a sorting mechanism to sort fish in a pen.

The project, which is a collaboration between BioSort, Cermaq and ScaleAQ, recently tested a sorter, developed by BioSort, which has the capacity to sort and separate individual fish based on specific characteristics. The aim of sorting is to be able to remove fish that need a follow up, to ensure the overall health of fish in the pen is better.

The sorter has been in developments for two years and is controlled by underwater electric motors. The testing took place at BioSort's lab and pool at their offices in Oslo, before moving onto the sea outside Oslo, and finally being installed and tested in net pens at Cermaq's sea site Vesterålen, in Northern Norway.

Image credit: Cermaq

"To my knowledge, no one has previously sorted swimming fish in a net pen before, so this is a big step towards individual-based handling of fish," Managing Director of BioSort, Geir Stang Hauge says.

"The purpose of this first test was to show that the sorter actually manages to sort swimming fish in a net pen, and it worked as we hoped, so it was a successful test," he adds.

Looking to the future, there are hopes that the sorter will move from manual control to autonomous so, combined with the sensor system in iFarm, it will be able to make its own decisions.

"Now that we have shown that it is possible to sort out swimming fish, the work will be intensified. The development team takes the learnings from this test to the development of the next generation prototype of the sorter that will be able to function under even more conditions," Hauge concludes.

For more information on Cermaq visit their website, HERE.

For more information on BioSort visit their website, HERE.