Salmon farmer ready to roll out technology to multiple sites across Norway.
Over the last three years, Mowi has been secretly researching and testing a new sensing system developed called Tidal at Alphabet’s X. After an extensive research and development period involving field testing and data collection, the project is now ready for commercial validation and Mowi will roll out the technology to multiple sites across Norway, the salmon giant wrote in a press release om the Oslo Stock Exchange.
“Moonshot project”
On Monday, SalmonBusiness reported on the new tech called Tidal developed at the advanced research lab at Google’s parent company Alphabet. Tidal is an advanced underwater sensing and software analysis platform that gathers intelligence on real-time growth, weight distribution, feeding control, and automatic lice counting for salmon. Using a combination of new camera technology as well as machine learning and machine perception. It is also able to track and model fish behaviours, environmental conditions, and the health of salmon over time.
Tidal is one of Google’s “moonshot project” which sees founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin invest the company’s resources into some of the world’s biggest problems.
Talking to the FT, the hope is according to Astro Teller, the director of X, to “reduce the world’s dependence on land-based proteins, such as beef, and to free the oceans from damaging fishing practices”.
“Mowi’s vision is to be leading the Blue Revolution. As the biggest salmon farmer in the world, we have a special responsibility to engage in the development of technology to improve our competitive advantage and to optimise our farming of healthy and sustainable food from the ocean. Thus, it is very encouraging to work with Tidal to further develop ocean farming technology,” said Mowi CEO, Ivan Vindheim.
Artificial intelligence
By employing artificial intelligence to analyse big data, Mowi hopes to understand and respond to long-term trends in fish behaviour and thereby further optimise ocean farming.
“With a combined vision to fully realise the potential of our seas for sustainable food production, our Research and Development department collaborated with the Tidal team as they developed their underwater sensing and analysis platform. This is the start of a journey towards finding new and innovative uses of technology throughout our value chain in the years to come,” said Mowi CTO, Øyvind Oaland.
Under the water
“Tidal’s mission is to protect the ocean and preserve its ability to support life and help feed humanity, sustainably. Our initial area of focus is on developing technologies that bring greater visibility and understanding of what’s happening under the water. We are delighted to be working with Mowi to provide tools that we hope can help Mowi make their operations more sustainable,” said Tidal’s General Manager, Neil Davé.
