The devil's in the detail

Available from http://www.aquasmartdata.eu/data-exploration-tool/, it helps companies to gain insight into already available production data and is completely free, without any restrictions or limitations.

By using AquaSmart, producers will supposedly be able to improve their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – such as FCR, mortality rate, growth rate, production time, and fish health.

In doing so, producers should be able to better:

• Control the production process for maximum profitability.
• Respond to a wide range of production challenges, in real time.
• Identify, in a timely manner, production problems or trends.
• Evaluate feed and fry suppliers, feeding practices and fish management strategies.
• Continuously improve feeding and management practices.

AquaSmart is innovative because it enables aquaculture companies to perform data mining at the local level and get actionable results. It also provides highly accurate descriptive and predictive models to help organizations understand not only what has happened, but – more significantly – what is most likely going to happen next.

Tom Flynn, Quality and Communications Manager, explains to Fish Farming Expert: “There is nothing out there in the market quite like AquaSmart. The project has the potential to make a significant and positive contribution to the bottom line of the fish farmer. The more fish farmers using the system, the better and more accurate the results will be.”

Indeed, through the availability of multi-lingual Open Data, those companies that have signed up for the system will be able to compare their specific results with other results that are stored in the cloud. By collecting and managing the data mining results from many companies and a large number of rearing cycles in variable conditions, with full respect to confidential data, AquaSmart can generate a knowledge base that will be useful for all stakeholders in the aquaculture sector – including producers, researchers, environmental agencies and governments.

As Nir Tzohai, of the Israeli company Artag, reflects, the system is a chance to “join a fish farmers’ community…learn from other growers’ experience…and make the industry much, much better”.