IntelliRAS - some results from a project on precision fish farming in recirculation aquaculture systems

IntelliRAS, “Intelligent farming and health control in land-based recirculating aquaculture systems” (2021-2024), is a Nordic project including three research institutes and a Danish company producing and selling probes measuring e.g., dissolved oxygen (DO; amount of oxygen accessible to the fish) and CO2 concentration in aquaculture systems. The overall aim is to enable farmers producing salmonids in recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS) to move from experience-based to knowledge-based decision making; precision fish farming (PFF). PFF was introduced in 2018 to facilitate a more sustainable production regarding production margins, environmental impact, health, and welfare in intensive aquaculture. Here we focus on monitoring and predicting mortality and consider tools for management that may enable earlier and less radical preventive changes in feeding. The methods considered are quality control charts of daily mortality counts, forecasting of CO2 and DO based on sensor data time series, and use of generalised dynamic linear models. The main data are from a Danish land-based freshwater trout farm with 12 tanks, 2 with additional sensors measuring DO, CO2 and temperature in the water. Moreover, we have production data from ~15 Danish RAS trout farms. Preliminary analyses showed CO2 to be in moderate positive correlation with feed fed but uncorrelated with mortality, which had positive moderate correlation with temperature.