A fish farm operator with facilities around Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast says it’s taking steps to lower its carbon footprint and reduce accidental overfeeding.
Grieg Seafood BC Ltd. has partnered with OptoScale, a Norwegian company, to provide nine camera sensor units for use at its farms along the east and west coast of the island.
The units provide accurate real-time insight and data regarding the performance and growth of farmed salmon populations, information previously available only after harvesting, Grieg explains.
Of the cameras purchased, it says two of them have had the ‘Welfare Module’ enabled, alongside the standard ‘Biomass Module,’ used to determine the weight of the fish.
Grieg says the ‘Welfare Module’ allows for identifying and monitoring wounds, maturation, fin damage, and scale loss on individual fish within the system.
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According to Managing Director Rocky Boschman, Grieg started trialling the cameras this past summer. The plan is to have the units in place early this year at nine Grieg farms.
“By allowing us to measure the actual size of the fish to a 98 per cent accuracy, we can now use that information to determine if we are over or underfeeding our fish – something we had previously only been able to calculate after the entire pen had been harvested,” says Boschman.
He says retrieving these stats is crucial, as giving fish too much food can have environmental impacts and affects sustainability targets.
“By feeding more efficiently, we will help to reduce accidental overfeeding, lower our carbon footprint and help to support the growth and performance of our fish,” Boschman adds.
To learn more and view the camera at work, Grieg Seafood BC Ltd. points to the OptoScale Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/619805957
