Cermaq has been awarded four development licenses for iFarm. Over the next few days, the equipment will be put into the sea at Cermaq in Øksnes.
“Now it will be good to be able to put into practice the technology that I have been involved in developing on the drawing board for a year. We installed Ifarm at two locations, in 2020 and 2021. The feedback we have received has been positive,” said Morten Grøsfjeld, mechanical engineer in Cermaq’s partner BioSort, to Bladet Vesterålen (paywalled).
The idea is that one can detect lice on the fish at an early stage and distinguish the fish that have lice from the rest of the fish. The overview can also provide more precise feeding, and thus lower wastage.
“During the 30 years I have worked in the aquaculture industry, this is the most revolutionary innovation I have been involved in. Now we can follow each individual fish, its history and health. Then we can also distinguish the fish that are sick. In addition, we can avoid infection,” said Stein Viggo Hansen, operations manager at Cermaq in Øksnes, to the newspaper.
Ifarm involves holding the fish deep in the cage using a net roof. When it then searches the surface to fill air in the swim bladder, it is passed through the iFarm sensor which scans each fish and uses image processing to recognize each individual.
