A Prototype Fish Metrology System for Open Ocean Aquaculture

Open-ocean aquaculture businesses are proving commercially successful. There are several refinements this technology must undergo in order to maximize productivity. One of the specific areas of refinement is in gathering detailed statistical knowledge of the captive fish stock population as a function of time. This knowledge will allow optimization of feed rates. Optimized feed rates will minimize feed costs, maximize fish yields, and minimize environmental impact. In addition, time series analysis of measured length-frequency distributions can be used to enhance fish harvesting strategies. We propose to build a novel, non-invasive, environmentally friendly, in-situ imaging system to provide fish length-frequency data on a routine basis. The prototype system is a low-cost, diver-activated, biometric imaging system with laser based absolute metrology.