Approximately 2.4 million tonnes of salmon is farmed each year currently, with about a third of this aquaculture in Norway. It is no surprise, then, that this is driving Norwegian technology firms to develop hi-tech solutions to improve the efficiency of fish farming.

How do you know if fish have eaten all their food or are still hungry? Cage Eye uses a hydro-acoustic system that listens to the noise of the fish feeding and so can tell when they have had enough. This helps to optimise the amount of food used to feed the fish, so little food is wasted. The system can also be used with artificial intelligent systems to learn the feeding patterns of the fish.

How do you treat fish effectively to eradicate parasitic sea lice? Stingray uses a laser system to identify and then destroy the lice, without harming the fish. This helps to reduce the number of fish that are damaged by lice and cannot be sold for consumption.

Here at Dehns, we work with a number of technology companies working on other solutions for fish farming. These include improving the nutrition of fish food, oxygenating water for fish farms and the fertility of farmed fish, all similarly aimed at further improving the efficiency and yield of fish farms.

“It’s perhaps no surprise that salmon farmers are turning to hi-tech solutions – the industry is certainly a wealthy one. Fish farms are worth nearly 50bn krone (£4.6bn, $6.4bn) to the Norwegian economy, and this year the country is expected to see growth of 9% in farmed salmon production.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43032542