Phase II: Integrated Acoustic System for Monitoring Fish Feed and Waste in Aquaculture Pens

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Net-pen aquaculture, in both freshwater and marine environments, is a large agricultural sector and produces a significant component of the world's fish for human consumption. Increasing pressure to generate profit and decrease production costs, plus pressure by the public and private sector to address ecological concerns associated with waste generated by these aquaculture operations, necessitates careful control of the fish feeding process. Fish feed is the major expense component of the production of fish in aquaculture operations. During the feeding process in net-pen aquaculture, a significant portion of the feed pellets, 10 to 40 percent, are not eaten by the fish and pass out of the net-pen. These wasted pellets pose both economic and environmental issues for the commercial net-pen operation. Feed waste also has negative impacts on fish health and product quality. There is strong demand from the industry for an efficient, reliable, and inexpensive system to monitor the feeding process, to minimize feed waste, and to maximize feeding efficiency. The Phase II pre-production prototype system will be integrated, compact, portable, and provide useful user interfaces, which will enable rapid modification of feeding operations to minimize wasting feed in net-pen aquaculture. The purpose of this project is to meet the needs of the aquaculture industry by producing the most reliable, cost effective, easily deployed and maintained system for enhancement of feeding efficiency and reduction of the associated negative environmental impacts.