Innovating More Sustainable Aquaculture
Ecosystem health depends on the balance and functional relationships between organisms and different trophic levels. When that balance is lost, it’s disruptive to both the ecosystem and the role it plays in its biome.
Think of an ecosystem for which this is true. It could be anything. Okay, are you done? You may have thought about the forest and its balance of plants and animals. However, have you ever thought about the ocean? That beautiful environment is filled with healthy organisms and microorganisms (cool little creatures, including bacteria, diatoms, amoebae, and more!), which eat either the available plants, or each other.
The ocean is rich in biodiversity and home to many living things, including invertebrates, sharks, seabirds, turtles, whales, small fish, and shellfish. When this delicate balance is disrupted (by either the addition or the steep decline of organisms), the ratios become skewed, leading to a potentially drastic change in the ecosystem. If there are too many of one organism in an ecosystem it could lead to a rapid decline in their prey and food; meanwhile, if there are too few of an organism it may lead to a rapid increase in the population of their prey and food because the numbers are not being controlled by feeding.
This harmonious balance of organisms is being put under pressure from many aspects, including climate change and chemical pollution, but aquaculture is also a major cause for the changes that marine ecosystems are experiencing. Aquaculture involves companies farming seafood in order to feed our population, and this creates several key problems.
As mentioned previously, aquaculture can disrupt the balance of organisms in the ocean. Since farmed fish need lots of other fish to feed on, companies take wild fish from the ocean, and these numbers add up. This results in way too many wild fish being taken, and the ocean’s organism balance is disrupted because there isn’t enough food left for those higher in the food chain [1].
Aquaculture can also cause environmentally harmful emissions. Sometimes, it can release organic waste into the body of water it’s working with, which, through changing the nutrient balance in the body of water, can cause harmful algal blooms (HAB). While HAB doesn’t sound too bad if you think of algae as cute seaweed, it can cause issues for the other organisms sharing the habitat. Algae uses up a lot of oxygen from the environment, so if there is too much algae, oxygen is limited for the fish who need it. That makes it hard for fish to live in the environment [2].
These are the two main problems currently, with unsustainable salmon farming in the US alone racking up losses of $47 billion since 2013, which is almost $6 billion a year (as of midway through 2021) [3]. Companies’ ability to farm is reduced due to customers choosing other ethical and environmentally-friendly options, and the increase in environmental impact of the industry.
Introducing our helpers, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)! Just to give a quick explanation, AI involves machines being programmed to think and learn like humans through intuition and reasoning. ML is a specific branch of AI that focuses on training machines to learn certain data about a topic, testing them to see how well they do, and whether they can help in the real world.
An example of a cool ML application is a machine being trained to distinguish cancerous spots from benign/non-harmful spots, and then being used in real environments as a precursor to figure out if you need to see a doctor.
We can harness the power of AI and ML to increase efficiency and reduce environmental waste in the aquaculture industry, thus impacting UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. Let’s take a deep dive at some promising solutions driven by smart technology!
In Norway, farmers are relying on AI and underwater cameras from the Norwegian Open AI Lab to optimize feeding for fish [4]. The cameras record the behavior of fish like salmon; this data is then analyzed by advanced machine learning models known as neural networks, which can detect changes in the behavior of salmon and determine how hungry they are [4]. The insight will guide farmers’ decisions on how much food to provide, increasing efficiency and reducing costs of feeding drastically [4]. This causes them to need to use less wild fish to feed the salmon, preventing overfishing. One advantage is that neural networks can generate incredibly deep and powerful insights even if they are trained on missing or incomplete data. It will be interesting to see how this AI solution can be scaled to farms around the world.
Another interesting and closely related application involves small computers that can automatically make decisions about how much food is released. These small computers have a hardware component that includes sensors and a software component that analyzes collected data [5]. Driven by data, the computers can automate the feeding process in an efficient and accurate manner. One of the several advantages of this solution includes reduced manual labor, meaning farmers will not have to constantly be onsite and monitor the behavior of fish [5]. This solution will ensure that the remote feeding process can still occur in areas with less internet access.
To sum it all up, AI and ML are playing a game-changing role in the aquaculture industry. These smart, data-driven solutions will help farmers successfully maintain fish populations while being as eco-friendly and efficient as possible.
At the same time, we will also be protecting aquatic ecosystems around the world by preventing overfishing as much as possible, supporting SDG 14: Life Below Water. Therefore, it is vital that more AI solutions and startups are aimed towards improving sustainability in the aquaculture industry.
Our world is a large ecosystem, and aquatic life plays a key role in it. Creating imbalance within these underwater ecosystems will be like removing an important link from a chain. So, let’s continue working towards paving the path to a sustainable future, starting with the life that lives beneath our great seas!
References
[1] The Ocean Foundation, “Sustainable Aquaculture,” The Ocean Foundation. [Online]. Available: https://oceanfdn.org/projects/sustainable-aquaculture/. [Accessed 15 July 2021].
[2] K. Clark, M. Radock, M. Wah, “Aquacultures' Effect on the Environment,” Debating Science, April 19, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://blogs.umass.edu/natsci397a-eross/aquacultures-effect-on-the-environment/. [Accessed 15 July 2021].
[3] S. Ho, “Unsustainable Salmon Farming Cost US$47 Billion In Losses Since 2013, Report Finds,” Green Queen, March 5, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/unsustainable-salmon-farming-cost-usd-47-billion-in-losses-since-2013-report-finds/. [Accessed 15 July 2021].
[4] DailyAlts, “Artificial Intelligence: The Norwegian AI Lab Helps Salmon Aquaculture,” DailyAlts, November 25, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://dailyalts.com/the-norwegian-ai-lab-helps-salmon-aquaculture/. [Accessed 15 July 2021].
[5] AI Trends Staff, “AI Applied to Aquaculture Aims for Improved Efficiency, Healthier Fish,” AI Trends, November 24, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.aitrends.com/ai-and-business-strategy/ai-applied-to-aquaculture-aims-for-improved-efficiency-healthier-fish/. [Accessed 15 July 2021].
