In the 1990s farmed fish (aquaculture) accounted for about one-quarter of global seafood production according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization. Now, with demand rising and the ocean’s resources being steadily depleted, aquaculture has overtaken wild fishery, globally producing more than 100 million metric tonnes of seafood each year.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly used in aquaculture management to analyze water conditions, environmental changes and fish status. And nowhere are these emerging fishing industry technologies more important than in Japan.

According to a report by private research group Yano Economic Research Institute, Japan’s aquaculture market will reach JP¥20.3 billion in 2021, an increase of 53 percent from 2016. AI-powered smart fisheries will account for JP¥1.3 billion, a figure that is rising quickly.

The aging of Japan’s primary fishing industry and the lack of successors reflect larger social issues related to the country’s aging population and declining birthrate. Wild fisheries are also increasingly constrained by resource conservation efforts, which has dealt a double blow to the Japanese fishing industry.

This article looks at three Japanese cases where AI is being applied either in large-scale aquaculture or to improve yields in traditional capture fishing.

Live weight management of fish by underwater camera

Aquaculture operations need to provide different amounts of feed depending on the weight of fish in their farms. Currently, if 50,000 fry are being raised in a breeding area, at least 200 fry are randomly sampled each time operators want to determine average weight. However, 200 of the 50,000 fry accounts for only 0.4 percent of the total, and so weight estimates may be inaccurate due small sample size.

Nippon Steel, in cooperation with NEC, is testing and deploying an automated underwater shooting system that captures images with a stereo camera. These are then processed frame by frame by an AI system that can determine fry size and weight by analyzing feature points, such as the tip of the fish’s nose and the size of its spine. The system can save time and reduce labour costs while improving accuracy.

Optimizing income and expenditures with AI

Environmental factors such as water temperature, salt concentration, meteorological conditions, tides, wind direction, wind speed, carbon dioxide level and age all affect the appetite of fish. For efficient fish stock management AI can analyze these factors to determine real-time state of the fry provide the correct amount of feed. An AI system provided by Nippon Steel can reduce feed amount by 60–70 percent to significantly lower production costs.

capture Fishing analysis AI

Sasebo Kokai Sokki, Sasebo City, and Nagasaki Prefecture are cooperating in the maintenance of navigation and marine meteorological observation equipment for capture fishing. The aim is use fishery AI to offset the declining number of fishery workers. The system considers market demand and advises fishermen how to adjust their catch accordingly to prevent fish prices falling due to overfishing. This can reduce both the working hours of fishermen and the fuel costs of fishing boats to stabilize the income of fishermen while reducing waste to better protect natural resources.

In this case the AI is largely trained by the fishermen themselves. The system logs the daily catch, seawater temperature, and fishing area. Past marine weather data from other data sources is also added to enable the AI to understand the relationship between fishing yields and weather conditions. Sasebo’s fishery app considers maps, operational diaries, weather data, tides, temperature, captured fish, etc. to guide fishermen on how to increase yields for each fishing session.

AI’s Future in the Japanese fishing industry

Japan’s fishing industry can be divided into two major categories: deep-sea farming and capture fishing. The former can use AI to analyze the growth state and feed requirements of fish; while AI can help the latter with analysis of data such as weather, catch, and ocean currents. Whether in real-time analysis or in complex conditional judgment, AI has far more power and potential than humans for these tasks.

Humans working in the traditional fishing industry need to learn their skills from mentors and through direct experience, and identifying and correcting mistakes is challenging because the natural forces the industry deals with are constantly changing. The aging of Japanese fishery workers has also created a labour shortage that is negatively affecting productivity. AI can offer solutions to these problems, particularly by engaging tech-savvy young Japanese who might not have otherwise considered entering the fishing industry.

Source: Medium

As the population grows, and the global standard of living improves, humanity’s appetite for seafood is increasing. In 2020 seafood consumption reached an all-time high, with an average of 20kg consumed annually by every person on the planet.

Written by: editorial / Technology Networks.com

Up to now most of this was caught in the world’s freshwaters and oceans. But things are changing, and today half of all seafood consumed comes from farmed sources, called aquaculture. The sector is expected to double by 2050 to supply the increasing global demand.

UC Santa Barbara Assistant Professor Halley E. Froehlich has contributed to an evaluation of the complex interactions between human, environmental, and animal health parameters of this budding industry, a view scientists call the One Health framework. The study, published in the journal Nature Food, brings together a diverse team of scientists, economists, sociologists and policy specialists led by the Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture Futures — a joint initiative between the University of Exeter and the United Kingdom’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science.

“Aquaculture is now being more widely recognized as an important part of our global food system,” said Froehlich, a faculty member in the departments of environmental studies and of ecology, evolution, and marine biology. “And it will continue to grow. So the question is, how do we plot that course in a more sustainable way?”

Aquaculture has played a major role in lifting millions of people out of poverty in many low and middle-income nations, but it faces a range of sustainability challenges. These include environmental degradation, overuse of antibiotics, release of disease agents and the requirement of wild-caught fish meal and fish oil to produce feed. Parts of the industry also engage in poor labor practices and gender inequality.

Negative societal impressions created by such examples mask aquaculture’s potentially significant benefits. Farming cold-blooded animals is very efficient from a nutrient perspective. Many species, such as oysters, don’t even require feeding. In addition, aquaculture can operate on a smaller footprint than many other forms of food production.

The new paper uses the One Health framework to lay out a set of metrics to include in national aquaculture strategies across the globe to improve sustainability as the industry expands. These include concepts like access to nutritious food and quality employment, the health of wild fish stocks and ecosystems and maintaining a small environmental footprint and resilience to climate change.

Communication, cooperation and coordination will be critical to the sustainable development of aquaculture as the sector grows. “If you don’t have that knowledge transfer — for instance, from scientists to policy-makers or farmers to scientists — these types of framework structures won’t go anywhere,” Froehlich said.

With that in mind, the authors collaborated widely on this report. “The paper results from extensive interaction between a wide range of academic experts in aquaculture, health, environmental and social sciences, economists, industry stakeholders and policy groups,” said senior co-author Charles Tyler from the University of Exeter.

The paper presents a strategy for developing aquiculture as well as the benchmarks to which we will measure its sustainability and success. “This is an important paper,” said lead author, Grant Stentiford of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, “acknowledging that aquaculture is set to deliver most of our seafood by 2050, but also that sustainability must be designed-in at every level.”

The One Health approach offers a tool for governments to consider when designing policies. “I hope it will become a blueprint for how government and industry interact on these issues in the future,” Stentiford added. “Most importantly, it considers aquaculture’s evolution from a subject studied by specialists to an important food sector — requiring now a much broader interaction with policy and society than arguably has occurred in the past.”

Some of these principles are already being applied in the European Union and in Norway, according to Froehlich, who has begun shifting her focus toward the industry in the United States, especially California. She is currently in the middle of a Sea Grant project collecting the most comprehensive dataset of marine aquaculture information from across all coastal states in the U.S. This includes practices, policies, and the hidden interactions with fisheries that influence how aquaculture is conducted in each state.

“Aquaculture is everywhere and nowhere at the same time,” Froehlich said. “People don’t realize how integrated it is into so many facets of marine ecology, conservation biology, and fisheries.”

Reference
Stentiford, G.D., Bateman, I.J., Hinchliffe, S.J. et al. Sustainable aquaculture through the One Health lens. Nat Food (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0127-5

Source:https://aquaculturemag.com/2020/08/11/how-can-sustainable-aquaculture-be-achieved-a-new-study-from-the-university-of-santa-barbara/

Recently the NOAA Fisheries announced the selection of federal waters off southern California and in the Gulf of Mexico as the areas of focused evaluation for the first two of ten Aquaculture Opportunity Areas in the United States. Establishing these Aquaculture Opportunity Areas are part of NOAA’s responsibility under the May 2020 Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth.

Information source: National Aquaculture Association/media release

These two regions were selected based on the already available spatial analysis data and current industry interest in developing sustainable aquaculture operations in the region. NOAA envisions each AOA as a small defined geographic area that has been evaluated to determine its potential suitability for commercial aquaculture. While the regions for the first two AOAs have been selected, the exact locations and configuration will be shaped by a combination of spatial analysis and public input.

These AOAs are expected to support three to five aquaculture farm sites of varying types including finfish, shellfish, macroalgae, or some combination of these. To identify each AOA, NOAA will use a combination of powerful data-driven siting analysis using hundreds of types of data on ocean uses and public input. The synthesis of these two essential elements will highlight space that is environmentally, socially, and economically appropriate for commercial aquaculture.

Learn more about the AOA announcement and view additional material on the NOAA Fisheries website.

Source:https://aquaculturemag.com/2020/08/21/noaa-fisheries-announces-marine-aquaculture-opportunity-areas/

By Shelley Shan

The government has designated 14 angling areas in commercial seaports across the nation and ensured their safety in compliance with the Executive Yuan’s “salute to the seas” policy, the Port and Maritime Bureau said yesterday.

Eighteen fishing accidents happened in commercial seaports in the past five years, bureau data showed.

Eight people were killed, eight were injured and two were reported missing in those accidents, the data showed.

The Port of Taichung had the highest number of fishing accidents, in which two people were killed and seven were injured, they showed.

The Port of Taichung’s north breakwater area — a habitat for a wide variety of fish — has drawn more than 58,000 fishing enthusiasts since its opening in October last year as the nation’s demonstration area for recreational fishing, Bureau Deputy Director-General Chen Pin-chuan (陳賓權) said.

It is crucial that the bureau keeps such locations safe for all angling enthusiasts, he said.

Chen said the bureau has inspected 14 designated fishing areas in all commercial seaports and implemented safety measures, including setting up warning signs and making sure that lifebuoys and ropes are available.

To manage the Port of Taichung’s north breakwater area more effectively, the bureau has entrusted the Taiwan Fishermens’ Association with the task of maintaining the safety there, Chen said.

The association has also launched an awareness campaign on the importance of conserving oceanic resources by issuing an eco-friendly fishing ID card and a manual on sustainable fishing at the Port of Taichung, he said.

For their own safety, fishers are advised to wear life jackets and other protective gear, and monitor the waves and sea weather reports, the bureau said.

Source:https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2020/08/19/2003741934