The cyber-enhanced tank: a novel concept for increased realism and multi-modal monitoring in tank based finfish aquaculture research

In recent years, several studies that analyze and interpret fish behavioral patterns in aquaculture settings have been published. Understanding how the fish react and respond to various scenarios and treatments can help provide insight and knowledge on how to achieve sustainable and efficient aquaculture production. Many of these research efforts have been conducted in land based tanks as this allows for closer and more continuous monitoring of the fish than what is possible at commercial facilities, essentially improving data quality and hence the possible insights to gain from these. However, most experimental tanks are closed-loop environments that are not particularly similar to commercial production units, as a consequence the results obtained in these systems are not directly transferable to industrial setups. Moreover, tank monitoring in such trials is often done using a single or a limited selection of different observation modes, which may not be sufficient to capture the full dynamics of fish responses. The present study seeks to address these challenges by developing the Cyber-Enhanced tank environment for aquaculture research. This concept features a tank environment setup to simulate the prevailing conditions in aquaculture units, mimicking natural light conditions, hiding sensors and other systems to reduce impacts on the fish and potential collisions, and using a tank color known to stimulate positive welfare in farmed fish. The tank was equipped with a novel sensor suite for high-fidelity detection and monitoring of fish behaviors based on a combination of an event camera, a scanning imaging sonar and conventional cameras. This innovative concept represents a step towards conducting experimental setups that are both more realistic in that conditions resemble those in commercial facilities and that uses a multi-modal sensor approach to capture details in fish responses in behaviors. The setup will be used as a basis for future fish responses experiments monitoring experiments in intensive aquaculture tanks.