Wireless communications for safe and efficient fish farming at sea

• The nature of the problem is that most marine aquaculture farms are not physically accessible 24/7. Traditional marine fish farming practices involve visiting site regularly by boat to deliver feed, assess livestock health status and administer medicines, etc. This approach provides only a small daily window of observation, is expensive in personnel and transport costs and is prone to weather-based disruption. Faced with such limitations, it is difficult to maintain efficient operations on-farm and to predict adverse events. 
• Marine fish farmers furthermore face significant environmental challenges, many of which are exacerbated by climate change. Rising water temperatures, shifts in salinity, and more frequent extreme weather events heighten risks, including harmful algal blooms that can deplete oxygen, release toxins, and jeopardize fish health. 
• In response to the above challenges, the salmon farming industry increasingly deploys sophisticated automation and remote monitoring technologies, to reduce reliance on physically attending site. 
• Data collected from the aquaculture monitoring and control systems needs to be processed and interpreted rapidly to have the most value, e.g. enabling adjustment of daily feed ration based on observed fish behaviour. This requires 24/7 communication of data from fish farms to where decisions are made. 
• Due to the unique conditions encountered at sea, these technologies must be deployed as part of a robust digital solution with resilient connectivity and autonomous data collection. Data should be accessible, accurate and timely enabling operators to quickly detect risks and make informed business decisions to help protect the safety of both site and stock.
• Parts of the salmon industry has adopted different digital and communications technologies for this purpose, however many farm sites cause issues for many off the shelf equipment due to their physical remoteness, surrounding topography, weather exposure, etc. The services described in this case study were designed to mitigate and overcome these issues that are sometimes unique to the offshore aquaculture sector (see https://www.krucial.com/aquaculture).
• Adoption has been steady for the ‘Krucial Connected Seafarm’ suite of aquaculture services and solutions, underpinned by the hybrid cellular-satellite communications service (see details in next section). A barrier to adoption that has been observed is as a result of different strategies across the sector, with some organisations holding off from adopting extensive digital technology as part of their operations, opting instead for more traditional manual methods.
• The Connected Seafarm has built a collaborative architecture, leveraging standard interfaces and enabling the integration of a range of technologies from other suppliers and manufacturers. In contrast to closed platforms, this ensures that the best technologies are always within reach of users, making the Connected Seafarm a true enabling platform and a catalyst for the adoption of cutting-edge technology by the sector. 

Image

Figure 2 - stormy conditions at salmon net pens (source, Fish Farming Expert)

Image

Figure 3 - Press article on salmon mortality caused by seasonal plankton (source, Fish Farming Expert)

• Central to deployment is the Connected Seafarm’s smart gateway called the K-Cell. The K-Cell creates a long-range wireless private wireless network on site that enables the deploying of hundreds of wireless sensors across and area of up to hundreds of square kilometres.
• The K-Cell gateway can be AC powered from a barge’s generator, can continue operating for days on battery power if primary power is unavailable or can be deployed completely off grid using a range of possible DC power sources such as solar, wind or fuel cell. This ensures critical operational data continues to be collected and communicated even when on site power infrastructure (such as a generator) fails or is unavailable.
• Hardware is designed to operate outdoors even in extreme offshore conditions thanks to certified compliance with IP68 and UL50E industrial standards as well as a proven track records at sea.
• The deployment of a complete Connected Seafarm package can be achieved in under a working day, with configuration done remotely ahead of or after on-site deployment – the result is minimal disruption to ongoing farm operations.
• The system is compatible with a large and growing ecosystem of devices, sensors, controllers – a digital strategy can start with a handful of water quality parameters monitored, and grow to include environmental, equipment monitoring and control efficiently and cost-effectively as customers require.
• Sensors can be powered from site AC power or from individual solar panels ensuring maximum flexibility in placement so farms can monitor the parameters they need wherever they need.
• Connected Seafarm is offered as a “turn key” end-to-end solution (see overview at: https://www.krucial.com/connected-seafarm-enviromental-monitoring), combining sensors into packages that meet the needs of individual sites for environmental monitoring, algal bloom monitoring and remote feed enablement. 

Connected Seafarm incorporates a data analytics dashboard that displays continuous data from sensors in easy-to-read graphs and charts. Users can set threshold alerts to notify key personnel via text or email when intervention is required. Historical data can be stored and recalled for trend analysis. The dashboard is accessible from anywhere via desktop and mobile devices.

Image

Figure 4 – Krucial Connected Seafarm gateway deployed on salmon farm barge (source, Krucial)

Image

Figure 5 – Solar-powered wireless water quality sensor deployed on salmon pen (source, Krucial)

The ability to offer (or augment) the Connected Seafarm as a remote feeding solution offers another advantage. Using the specific example of camera-based feeding systems, the inability to carry out feeding operations when these can only be done from site, or from a shore base, results in a measurable loss in revenue. In the absence of video monitoring, over-feeding would result in wastage of feed to the seabed, while under-feeding results in sub-optimal fish growth and diminished yield per site at harvest. The ability to provide remote feeding completely decoupled from site location, centralised to an operational centre / regional HQ, means that the Connected Seafarm can ensure feeding happens continuously and consistently across all connected sites.

Feed costs represent the highest single component of overall salmon production costs. It is therefore crucially important to optimise Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) in order to maintain cost efficiency. The following financial breakdown illustrates the benefit of incremental improvements in salmon feeding efficiency:

• 1% FCR Improvement: For a salmon marine farm with a biomass consent of 1,100 tonnes and crop cycle capacity of 1,650 tonnes, a 1% improvement in FCR saves 18.1 tonnes of feed per cycle.
• Typical Feed Costs: With feed costing approximately £1850 per tonne, a 0.1 FCR improvement yields a saving of £185 per tonne of fish.
• Total Savings: A typical farm producing 2,500 tonnes can save £462,500 with a 0.1 FCR improvement. Across a 30-farm operation, these savings total £13,875,000.

These savings can significantly boost overall ROI, especially for salmon farming operations with multiple crop cycles per year.

Since a single Connected Seafarm deployment can support a large number of sensors deployed across an area of hundreds of square kilometres, salmon producers can scale-up cost effectively when needed, by adding further fish farms to the network or by enhancing monitoring capabilities at individual sites (via additional sensors). Instructions are provided for maintaining and servicing the deployed sensors, or a tailored service contract can be implemented if preferred.

The business case for additional investment in Connected Seafarms or additional sensors and connected technologies is subject to the needs of individual sites, regions or producers within Krucial’s customer base. Enhanced data collection and provision isn’t yet widespread across the global fish farming industry, with individual production companies and farming regions differing in their experience and views on the necessity. 

Since the initial launch of the Connected Seafarm in 2022, users of the systems such as salmon biologists have provided positive feedback on the value gained from automated environmental monitoring, enabling refinement of husbandry procedures, as well as more efficient and trusted adherence to regulatory requirements such as regular reporting. Examples include ability to take prompt mitigating actions where the deployed sensors detect imminent risks of underwater biological issues such as harmful algae blooms.

Krucial are continuing to develop and improve the Connected Seafarm, future capability in the areas of AI and Machine Vision to turn underwater cameras into powerful fish behaviour sensors, as well as novel sensing technologies that can detect an increasing number of key parameters means that Krucial’s offering to the sector will continue to expand.

Remote aquaculture operations’ monitoring and control can have significant positive impact on farming practices, reducing the need for staff to deploy in boats and spend time on hazardous cage-side operations. This is illustrated by Figures 6 and 7 (below), comparing historic feeding practices at sea with modern, control room-based operations.

Most salmon producers are adopting digital technologies to some extent but there is still a lot of potential remaining for further adoption and the resulting gains in operational efficiency. A further benefit of the Connected Seafarm solution is to improve work efficiency and safe operating conditions for specialist fish farm staff, who are otherwise required to travel frequently between marine sites to record physical, chemical and biological water quality measurements. 

Image

Figure 6 - Manual feeding of salmon in net pen (pneumatic delivery system)

Image

Figure 7 – Remotely controlled feeding of salmon in land-based hub (source, Huon Aquaculture)