The information shows that the total global production of salmon (both wild and farmed) was 2.1 million tonnes in 2016 and is expected to be 2.2 million tonnes in 2017, an increase of 5%. The EU, the US and China account for over 70% of global farmed salmon consumption, with a forecast of 75,000 tonnes of hidden market demand remaining.

As the number one farmed fishery in the world, the future of salmon farming going forward will go hand in hand with high technology such as artificial intelligence.

01

Salmon living in a "big house"

Anyone who knows salmon knows that salmon are born in freshwater environments and grow to a certain size before moving to saltwater. But this short process of freshwater farming requires a high level of skill.

How can you maintain high quality water quality and still reduce water consumption? Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) should be born.

reportedly， Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) by the world's largest salmon farming company--- Developed by Veolia, a subsidiary of the Norwegian farming group。 The system uses a semi-enclosed recirculating culture， After a series of purification treatments， Enables water to be refilled back into the fish pond for reuse， Can effectively reduce water consumption and pollution。

In addition, the system is equipped with many of Veolia's patented technologies, including the MBBR (Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor) and Hydrotech drum filters, which remove small particles from the water and carbon and nitrogen from fish excreta. And it's worth noting that efficient water quality control reduces mortality and promotes growth of salmon fry.

In 2014, three units installed at the group's Steinsvik plant were put into operation, which can treat 17,000 cubic metres of water per hour and recycle 99% of the water used for farming.

The effect is obvious. The Steinsvik plant is the largest of its kind, producing approximately 5.3 million salmon smolts per year, while currently consuming only 250 to 500 litres of water per kilo of smolts. Because of this success, Veolia has built a larger facility in Norway capable of raising 7 to 8 million salmon smolts using recycled water.

Now, Whole Oceans, a U.S. salmon farming company, is also planning to build its own RAS system, with an investment of more than $250 million, located in the Bucksport, Maine, area. When completed, it will rank as one of the largest salmon recirculating aquaculture systems in the world. According to the company's CEO Robert Piasio, the system will be able to raise 20,000 tons of salmon per year once it is operational.

Meanwhile, another salmon farming company, Nordic Aquafarms, has also announced a total investment of $450-500 million in RAS farms around the same time, with an annual production target of 33,000 tonnes. And it's worth noting that in addition to the farm, the company plans to build a supporting hatchery and processing plant to form a complete closed loop of salmon fry, breeding and processing.

02

Automatic monitoring by artificial intelligence

How will you know that enough food is being fed during salmon farming?

Now with new technology, the Lingalaks salmon farm in Norway has this information at its fingertips. The farm produces nearly three million salmon per year, and once the feeding of large schools of salmon is over, the noise generated is reduced.

The company was able to get this bit of information accurately thanks to a new sonar system it installed in one of its farms,. The system generates corresponding noise when large schools of salmon are feeding. When the fish have had enough, they swim away and the noise is then reduced.

Figure: the red and white areas of the noise spectrum show the main concentrations of feeding salmon

Lingalaks CEO Erlend Haugarvoll hopes that this information will effectively reduce the amount of feed fed, increasing efficiency while saving significant amounts of money. At the moment it looks like most of the feed fed to the farm is being wasted.

The kit has taken several years to develop by technology company CageEye, whose CEO Bendik Sovegjarto says, "It's not a pellet detector," which focuses on detecting the amount of fish food pellets left in the water, "and when you don't see any pellets, you can't be sure if it's because the fish have had enough or if the current is taking the food away. "

The rise of artificial intelligence technology like this one, which determines when feeding should be stopped and started, will have a major impact on a lucrative industry like salmon farming, and there are other high-tech methods available for automated fish monitoring.

For example, a startup company, Aquabyte, recently raised $3.5 million to develop a system that can effectively use existing video surveillance data.

Many modern fish farms already use cameras to monitor salmon in cages, says Aquabyte founder and CEO Bryton Shang. "With the video monitoring system, operators don't have to be on site to watch the fish and can decide how much to feed remotely," he explains. "We extract images from the video surveillance system and use computer vision algorithms instead of manual analysis."

03

Automatic laser sea lice removal

As the biggest problem plaguing the salmon consumer market is the ever-present criticism of sea lice. It was reported a few days ago that a British government investigation had revealed that the sea lice in some farmed salmon in Scotland exceeded the standard, and the serious cases even exceeded the safety standard by more than 20 times, and the health authorities called on major supermarkets to suspend the import of goods from the relevant salmon farms.

In addition to the automated monitoring mentioned above, future de-sea lice can also be automated. Stingray has released a self-stimulating tool to remove sea lice by laser. The company's website says: "Sea lice can take a fatal blow and solidify within milliseconds. "At the same time, the salmon are not injured because their mirror-like skin reflects the laser.

Stingray system locates fish lice on salmon and fires laser

Video viewing is more straightforward

It is not difficult to imagine that the future of fish farming will need to be highly automated and intelligent, but this will require significant financial support. On the contrary, in our country, the conflict between man and nature has become more prominent at a time when the demand market for aquatic seafood is expanding, and it is not a wild statement that there is no fish near the sea. In addition to offshore fishing, which is expanding at an "almost frenzied pace," fish farming has been taken to a new level. Automated and AI-assisted fish farming is bound to be more energetic.

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