1. 15 | 22 | 29
JUNE, 2021
Precision Aquaculture
Dr SARA BARRENTO
Swansea University,
Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research

2. What is
precision
aquaculture?
DR. SARA BARRENTO
SWANSEA UNIVERSITY
Cent re f or Sust ainabl e Aquat ic Research

3. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 3
Aquaculture
The farming of
aquatic organisms
Fish
Molluscs
Crustaceans
Aquatic Plants
Amphibians …
Precision
aquaculture
The acquisition and
interpretation of data
about the aquatic
environment and farmed
species through sensors
that can provide decision
support for farm
operations.

4. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 4
44139
3462
AGRICULTURE AQUACULTURE
Precision farming is
not a new concept
Number of Review articles, Research articles
and Book chapters retrieved from Science
Direct search 2015-2021

5. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 5
Precision aquaculture: where?
RAS

6. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 6
Precision
Aquaculture
RAS
@CSAR

7. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 7
Precision aquaculture: where?
RAS At sea

8. At sea
Challenges
Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 8
Harsh environment
Power and connectivity
Large range of spatial scales
Access can be impeded by weather

9. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 9
Precision Aquaculture: the motivation
Pressure from consumers
and regulators
Sustainable farming
Better animal welfare
Restorative aquaculture
New real-time sensor
technologies
Farms are getting bigger
and moving offshore
Society
Technology
Industry

10. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 10
Restorative
Aquaculture
The concept…
Aquaculture operating in
step with natural ecosystem
processes, providing
positive environmental
effects and supporting the
long-term sustainable use of
natural resources.
@Câr-y-Môr

11. Precision aquaculture: the framework
Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 11
DATA COLLECTION
& INTEGRATION
Aquatic
Environment
• Temperature
• Nutrients
• pH
• Salinity
• Pollutants
Species
related data
• Biomass
• Behaviour
• Physiology
DATA
ANALYSES
• Feed management
• Harvesting schedule
• Veterinary intervention
• Early warning
• Risk analysis
Modelling and Insight
• Image analyses
• Species growth
• Forecasts
SUPPORT
DECISION
Existing data
• Weather
• Hydrography
Observe Interpret Decide and act
Adapted
from
O’Donncha
&
Grant,
2019

12. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 12
Precision
Aquaculture
Føre et al. 2018
Biosystems Engineering
Volume 173, September 2018, Pages 176-193
5 - Water quality probes
6 – Local weather station
7 – Satellite-based monitoring
Real Time
Monitoring
At sea
The traditional view
SUPPORT DECISION – focused on
management and troubleshooting

13. Examples
from
research
collaborations:
Car
Y
Mor
&
PEBL
Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 13
Câr-y-Môr, Pembrokeshire, Wales
for the love of the sea
@Câr-y-Môr

14. Examples
from
research
collaborations:
Car
Y
Mor
&
PEBL
Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 14
Câr-y-Môr,
for the love of the sea
@Câr-y-Môr @Câr-y-Môr @SaraBarrento

15. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 15
Certification
Management &
troubleshooting
Assess new site
location
Licensing
process
Validating
restorative farming
(blue carbon, biodiversity)
Precision aquaculture can support newcomers to the industry

16. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 16
Environment
Conditions
Cultivation
Gear
Farm
management
Species
Cultivated
Intensity and
Scale
Aquaculture
IMPACT or
BENEFIT
Precision
aquaculture
can support
restorative
farming
Adapted from Theuerkauf et al., 2021

17. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 17
SeaLens: Low-cost sea-farm monitoring tool
Water quality
pH / Salinity
Physical environment
Light / Flow / Temp.
Imaging
Photo / Video
Examples
from
research
collaborations:
Car
Y
Mor
&
PEBL
Deployment Surface unit Current sensor
@PEBL

18. Examples
from
research
collaborations:
faptic.xyz
Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 18
Employing machine vision
to detect lumpfish
• AI - Deep Learning algorithms
• Fish number/unit volume
• Fish position
• Fish behavior
Faptic.xyz
Clinging,
37.5
Swimming,
62.5
@CSAR

19. Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 19
Precision aquaculture: where?
RAS Wearable
At sea
Real time analysis of
biomarkers using wearable
sensors technology offers
non-invasive data collection.

20. Sensors need to be:
Dr Sara Barrento WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 20
robust
low-cost
capable of underwater and
in-air wireless connectivity
high level of Interoperability
Data Management
Models need to be robust
Security and sovereignty of
data is critical to exploit
technology in an ethical and
commercially sustainable way
Precision aquaculture: moving forward
Avoid YAGI
"You aren't gonna need it”

21. Dr Sara Barrento SETTING THE STAGE: WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 21
Acknowledgements
Christian Berger & Dani Abulhawa
PEBL-Plant Ecology Beyond Land
plantsbeyondland.com
Adrian Hodgkinson and Faptic team
Faptic.xyz
Flo Taylor
Câr-y-Môr
https://carymor.wales/

22. Dr Sara Barrento SETTING THE STAGE: WHAT IS PRECISION AQUACULTURE? 22
Thank you
Dr Sara Barrento
s.i.barrento@swansea.ac.uk