Early warning of harmful algal blooms on salmon farms

Phoebe Chadwick – Ocean Scientist – Fisheries & Environment, RS Aqua Asya Patleeva – Digital Marketing Strategist, RS Aqua

THE THREAT

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can have devastating impacts on marine site salmon farms and are an increasingly frequent problem. While it is hard to quantify how severe a HAB might be at a certain time, the risk of mortality events occurring on farms is incredibly high. Despite this, there is no off the shelf solution to warn farms of incoming HABs.

THE SOLUTION

Supported by an Innovate UK grant, RS Aqua and Canadian partner Innovasea have been developing a HAB early warning system.The system will notify farmers of potential HABs before they arrive, enabling them to initiate preventative measures ahead of time to protect stocks.

HOW IT WORKS

An oceanographic buoy with Innovasea’s cableless environmental sensors is positioned down-current of nearby farms, while more sensors are deployed on the farms themselves. The sensor data are sent to the cloud for processing by a Machine Learning protocol to establish a real time HAB risk index for farmers. Measurements include dissolved oxygen, temperature, chlorophyll, blue green algae, turbidity, salinity, and various meteorological and oceanographic parameters.

Thanks to the unique wireless design of the Innovasea sensors, operations are much more efficient and allow the system to be quickly installed at any site.

PROGRESS

The project is currently 12 months into a 29-month testing and development program, with all sensors deployed at a Scottish Sea Farms (SSF) site in Shetland. Ongoing SSF phytoplankton monitoring data is being collated with the real time sensor data to aid in the development of the Machine Learning protocol.The project hopes to have a proven system ready to be rolled out to other sites in early 2024.