FISHSCAN · Development of novel system for continuous remote monitoring of weight, growth, and size distribution of fish in aquaculture enclosures

Today there is ±5% error in estimation of biomass in fish farming. This represents € 91M in loss for the European fish farming industry. Around 80 % of all sales of farmed fish are arranged pre-harvest. To make profit on the sale, farmers and processors are dependent on correct estimations of weight, size distribution and total biomass. Furthermore, fish feed constitutes 50% of the production costs in fish farming. Cost of excess feeding is therefore high. It is a fact that European fish farmers have been facing serious competition from low cost countries during over the recent years, especially the sea bass & bream sector in southern Europe. The FishScan project will develop a novel system for continuous remote monitoring of weight, growth and size distribution of fish for use within aquaculture enclosures. The aim is to achieve an accuracy of 99% in size measurements for fish > 1kg, and 97 % for fish at 100g. The FishScan system has a potential in aid a reduction from the current ±5% to ±3% error in biomass estimates. This represents increased profit of € 40,445 p.a. per farm license and corresponds to economical benefits of €41M p.a. in increased profits for the European aquaculture industry. To achive this, the FishScan project will: Increase knowledge of fish behaviour in net cages to enable representative sampling; Transferring Time-of-Flight (ToF) technology and software to an aquaculture setting; Design robust camera module & optimise LED power & positioning; Design translation system for movement of camera module in fish cage; Develope software for use underwater on fish; Develop LED driver to increase frequency from 20MHZ up to 40MHz to increase depth resolution of ToF data; Design control system for camera module movement, light settings and camera and image processing software; Integrate and validate the FishScan system to obtain a working prototype. The SMEs in the FishScan project expects a NPV (10yrs, 7%) of €1.3M from the project.