Enhanced Aquaculture Monitoring

The purpose of this proposal is to analyze the monitoring requirements for near shore aquaculture installations and determine the best technical solution to continuously monitor these growing sites. By providing continuous monitoring of the water quality, shellfish/finfish quality can be inferred and then transmitted to the consumer as an enhanced food security certification. Tridentis Advanced Marine Vehicles (AMV) in conjunction with the Washington College Watershed Innovation Laboratory (WIL) intend to establish a baseline testing regimen for a near‐shore shellfish aquaculture farms and develop a material solution to monitor the environmental conditions efficiently, in real time, accurately, and in a cost‐effective manner within aquaculture installations. AMV intends to develop technology for use on our Advanced Coastal Monitor (ACM) to provide a cost‐effective solution to improve monitoring capabilities. The Watershed Innovation Lab will supply Basic Observation Buoy (BOB) monitoring buoys that measure and transmit data real‐time to be used in concert during this study. The ACM is a cost‐ effective solution and greatly reduces the labor hours required to survey the aquaculture growing areas. The BOB is a fixed floating buoy that continuously monitors water quality and transmits the data in real‐ time to a shore monitoring station. Food security is a growing concern from a regulatory and consumer perspective. Agriculture is easily monitored spatially and frequently. Aquaculture is more difficult to confidently observe. We trust that the water that covers the marine ecosystem is safe, clean and uncontaminated. The development of the autonomous vehicle and sentinel buoy monitor systems will provide ubiquitous security that our food is safe to consume from its point of origin to the shelf where we pick it from. The commercial application is global to ever expanding aquaculture and mariculture farms that will become increasingly critical as food needs expand with global populations.