Collaboration provides insight into why fish are dying

An overview of causes of death

Olav Jamtøy and AquaCloud's fish health and welfare group engaged an expert team from NMBU Veterinary School, led by Professor II in Aquaculture Health Management, Arnfinn Aunsmo DVM Phd., to conduct a research project to develop a standard for classification and categorization of causes of loss and death in salmon and trout. The report was delivered in the fall of 2021.

Based on this work, farmers who have adopted the new standard and also share data via AquaCloud can now access datasets that provide a comprehensive understanding of the situation in their region.

This gives them the opportunity to compare their performance with nearby farmers and identify local challenges that contribute to fish deaths, while also providing an ongoing overview at regional and national levels.

More sharing yields positive results

Kristian Blom, CEO of AquaCloud, emphasizes that AquaCloud's goal is to connect industry, researchers and innovators to harness the power of data.

“ By making datasets available across industry players, we can drive insight and change. Having worked hard to foster a willingness to collaborate in the industry, we are now seeing more and more farmers joining. The uniqueness of our platform lies not in the technology, but in the collective will to collaborate between farming companies ,” he says, adding:

– Just before the summer, we launched datasets that provide new insights into mortality at the national and regional levels. The volume of data in AquaCloud is now so large that we can start providing access to information that we have not had the opportunity to before, which we see with the launch of these datasets.

Can help improve the situation

By getting more data about the causes of fish deaths, it may be easier to find ways to avoid them. Project manager Olav Jamtøy is very pleased with the project's progress.

– The standardization work we have carried out, and its integration into AquaCloud, now gives us a solid factual basis that we have never been close to before. This can be an important contribution to gaining insight into the underlying causes of mortality and losses, and from there initiating projects and routines to improve fish health and welfare in the industry, explains Jamtøy.

He further explains that in 2020 there was a call for a national volunteer effort to reduce fishing mortality.

– There are already companies representing close to 50% of Norwegian salmon and trout production that contribute data so that we can follow ongoing developments today. Fact-based insight is fundamental and we expect all serious producers to join in the future, says Jamtøy.

The data collected also serves as a source for the Fish Health Database, which is delivered to the Norwegian Veterinary Institute in collaboration with Seafood Norway.

« By making datasets available across industry players, we can drive insight and change. «

Kristian Blom, CEO of AquaCloud.

New project with NMBU builds on the work

AquaCloud and NCE Seafood have taken the initiative for the next stage in fish health management by entering into an agreement on a research project with NMBU Veterinary School led by Professor Arnfinn Aunsmo.

The agreement includes the implementation of a pilot project that will provide the basis for a main project on systematic health registrations in aquaculture. The pilot project is to be completed by the end of 2023 and builds on the project that was completed in 2021.

In parallel, NCE Seafood and AquaCloud are also working on a digitalization project to standardize and streamline reporting of reasons for downgrading on the slaughter line for greater insight into prioritization with the aim of reducing losses in the production cycle.

AquaCloud is participating with a stand at this year's Aqua Nor - all interested parties are welcome to stand A-118 for more information.