FISHING FOR INFORMATION
Singapore’s first AI-powered floating fish farm tracks barramundi growth and health better than any human expert can.
Urbane with salt and pepper hair, Michael Voigtmann, who moved here in 1998 from Sydney and has a PhD in Organic Geochemistry and Fuel Chemistry, along with 25 years of experience in manufacturing, doesn’t look anything like a fish farmer.
Like many, the advent of his 40s triggered a rethink of his life. Unlike some, however, he chose a start-up, instead of a sports car.
“We began as slime farmers,” says the chief technical officer of Singapore Aquaculture Technologies (SAT), which he runs with partner Dirk Eichelberger. Their initial focus was on biodiesel derived from the fatty acids slime or algae produces. Then they were told to meet fish production targets to retain their farm. “We were, like, okay, fish farming. How hard can that be? Famous last words,” says Voigtmann, laughing.
Pretty hard, as it turns out.
Running a kelong-style fish farm in the ocean is “like betting at the casino,” says Voigtmann. Fortunes can change in an instant. Also, fish waste could lead to burgeoning algae and bacteria, causing disease. In 2015, a plankton bloom – attributed to global warming and bad weather – memorably killed off more than 500 tonnes of fish along the Johor Strait.
Voigtmann believes AI can give farmers more control and effective oversight. SAT’s 3,000 sq m floating fish farm off Pasir Ris is Singapore’s first smart fish farm that’s powered by AI and video analytics. It has 10 tanks, each of which can hold up to 12 tonnes of fish. And it currently exclusively rears the “well-researched” barramundi, with more species in the pipeline such as red snapper, garoupa, threadfin and pomfret. It already rears some of these at its other non-AI farm.
Each tank at the smart farm is a closed containment system, using recycled water and automated pumping, sensor and feeding systems. Tanks are also equipped with cameras that are hooked up to a proprietary, highly precise AI that SAT developed with Siemens, so each time a fish swims past a camera, it’s automatically photographed and measured between five predefined points. An algorithm then takes the ratio of those distances and converts it into a weight, allowing farmers to accurately track growth.
The system also monitors swimming and feeding behaviours, as well as disease indicators. A fish swimming in a corkscrew pattern, for example, suggests a virus in the brain. All this data allows the SAT’s team to finely calibrate the optimum levels of oxygen, water supply and feed required. To reduce the carbon footprint, solar panels generate half the farm’s energy needs.
More importantly, says Voigtmann, AI allows farmers to predict problems and troubleshoot them before they escalate. “Catching a disease and treating it early is much cheaper, more environmentally friendly and sustainable,” he adds.
SAT sells its fish at its sister company StraitsMarket.com that reaches private consumers as well as established restaurants like Atout, Forlino and Ristorante Pietrasanta. Voigtmann says SAT’s combined production capacities from its two farms is 500 tonnes, with another 500 tonnes to be added this year.
He also believes Singapore has significant potential as a fish exporter. “Singapore’s regulatory environment helps to build trust between producers and customers. We could potentially use technologies like blockchain to digitally sign off on every part of the fish-rearing process. The complete history of the fish would be online and available to customers, further enhancing transparency,” he adds.
While achieving true sustainability is an ongoing effort, he says the key to this is ensuring no waste is released into the environment, as well as reducing dependence on fish feed made from depleting Peruvian anchovy stocks and soya that usually requires large amounts of water and land.
Happily, the algae cultivated by Voigtmann addresses these points nicely as they thrive on fish waste and can also be processed into high-quality fish feed. “It’s a neat, elegant solution inspired by nature and fine-tuned to perfection.”
“Singapore’s regulatory environment helps to build trust between producers and customers. We could potentially use technologies like blockchain to digitally sign off on every part of the fish-rearing process."
“Someone asked me: ‘How could you get as strong as an ox without eating any meat?’ And my answer was, have you ever seen an ox eating meat?” These were the famous last lines of Germany’s strongest man Patrik Baboumian in the trailer of Netflix’s The Game Changers. The documentary also features former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger and kungfu star Jackie Chan, both vegans, discussing the benefits of plant-based diets.
Singapore has climbed the ranks to be among the top vegan-friendly cities in Asia, so it was hardly surprising that, in February, the world’s largest seed round for a plant-based food tech company was raised here by Next Gen Foods to the tune of US$10 million (S$13.2 million).
Our city-state has even more reasons to root for vegetable farming over meat right now: land scarcity and the Singapore Green Plan 2030. Both require us to grow more vegetables to be sustainable. Vegetable farming also takes up less land space and, compared to real chicken, the plant-based variety produces 88 per cent less of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
Producing our food locally also helps us to reach the 30 by 30 goal of achieving 30 per cent of our nutritional needs by 2030.
“We’re extremely grateful to have blue-chip investors such as Temasek, Singapore Economic Development Board and Singapore-based tech venture capital firm K3 Ventures on board for our ambitions for hypergrowth,” says Next Gen Foods’ chief marketing officer, Jean Madden. Temasek also backs Impossible Foods in its plant-based beef.
She adds, “I think it is undeniable that we attracted these investors in part due to Singapore’s 30 by 30 goal. Chicken as a protein has also overtaken beef and pork in global consumption.”
In no way is Tindle rushing to the supermarket space though. Next Gen’s key strategy to tackling the market is to go through chefs in F&B establishments. “It’ll be a snowball effect as focusing on building a cult brand and establishing strong, oneon-one connections with chefs will help us build brand love from them and their customers,” reveals Madden.
She also pulls out figures from Dupont Nutrition & Biosciences’ research suggesting that the demand for plant-based foods in Asia is projected to surge 200 per cent in the next five years, and that 78 per cent of Asian consumers already feel that plant-based meats are here to stay.
Singapore was the first country to taste Tindle via 11 restaurant brands when it launched on March 18. From Butter Tindle Pot Pie at Adda by Manjunath Mural – former executive chef of the Michelin-starred The Song of India – to Kung Pao Tindle Chicken at Empress and Mediterranean rooftop bar Levant's Tindle Chicken Manakish, the options are aplenty and varied.
Another chef, Adam Penney of Three Buns, had been dreaming up his Kiev burger recipe for 20 years but found it hard to keep butter within the chicken fillet without a mess. He is finally satisfied with his Tindle creation, From Russia with Love, says Madden who also shares that, “He’s not only created his perfect Kiev burger, but another Tindle burger as well. We’ve also seen more chefs fold in other ingredients as Tindle Thy can be easily moulded into different shapes, while providing the same bite and mouthfeel of real chicken.”
How did non-GMO Tindle Thy (pronounced thigh) with nine plant ingredients such as sunflower oil, soya and coconut fat measure up when The Peak tasted From Russia with Love and The Big Cease from Three Buns? Both were prepared with Tindle that had been deepfried and each had a more tender bite than chicken meat. The Kiev burger’s Tindle patty is stuffed with miso and parsley butter, while the buttermilk Tindle fillet for the latter is topped with a creamy Caesar sauce. The overall results are tender and moist with a pretty convincing mouthfeel.
“We’ve also seen more chefs fold in other ingredients as Tindle Thy can be easily moulded into different shapes while providing the same bite and mouthfeel of real chicken."