ENGINEERING. PRACTICE. POLICY.
51 unmanned systems
inside
January/February 2016
BY THE
NUMBERS
40 million
tons
The additional amount
of fsh (live weight)
likely to be needed
globally by 2050.
25 years ago
The point at which
the wild fsh catch
stopped keeping up
with demand.
Source: Hauke Kite-Powell,
Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution
said, but robotics and automation can help level
the playing field.
The immediate opportunities lie in efficient un-
manned systems that can lower operation costs.
"I think those efforts can probably directly
address something like 15 percent of the cur-
rent total cost component of offshore aquacul-
ture operations," Kite-Powell said. 'If we do a
really good job of that I think we come close to
making offshore aquaculture cost competitive
with near-shore operations."
Kelly agrees that any new equipment has
to improve the bottom line. Aquafarmers use
technology and will adopt new equipment
that is useful, he said, but they are price sen-
sitive and hard-nosed.
"You're not trying to go to a market that
doesn't know technology," Kelly said. "They
have used technology; they have adopted (it)
where the pain points are hard. But it's pretty
much (that) it's got to do the job and they need
it. They're not going to take technology just be-
cause it's technology and it's got blinking lights
and buzzers and whistles."
Despite the challenges, Kelly said he sees ma-
jor advances in the next 5 to 10 years.
"We use salmon as a proxy because it's the
most sophisticated finfish aquaculture industry
out there. …The amount of technology that has
come into play in the things that they're look-
ing at buying over the last five years has grown
quite a bit."
It is new technology, particularly unmanned
systems, really shift the way seafood is pro-
duced, Kite-Powell said.
"In the long run I think really innovative
application of automation may change the
whole paradigm in ways we don't know yet."
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