Salmon producer Cermaq Canada has become the first company to utilise new forecasting tools in the proprietary SaaS platform SeaState developed by California ocean analytics firm Scoot Science. Cermaq is also the first to activate the Scoot Integrated Welfare Index (SIWI) and to engage Scoot in bespoke analysis projects to help refine its standard operating procedures.
SeaState, an ocean intelligence platform for aquaculture, is now running across 26 Cermaq sites in Canada.
Real-time temperature, salinity and oxygen levels are integrated with publicly-available data to produce forecasts with regional and site-specific ocean conditions.
Forecasts of ocean conditions are updated four times per day to give farmers the warnings needed to improve fish welfare, increase survivability and operate more sustainably and profitably.
Meanwhile, SIWI quantifies the cumulative impact of both human and environmental induced stressors on the welfare of the fish.
According to Scoot Co-Founder & CEO Dr Jonathan LaRiviere, SeaState has the power to change the way ocean-based salmon farming operates.
“Our tools increase survivability, profitability and sustainability of salmon farms anywhere in the world. We’re collaborating with Cermaq to expand our ocean intelligence toolset to their specific needs,” he said.
Cermaq’s Kathleen Frisch explained that the salmon farmer was looking for an innovative system that not only connects its data streams but makes the data useful.
“Scoot Science’s work is giving us a new level of understanding of how the ocean conditions affect our salmon and our operations in context of the local environment and our interactions with it. Now our team can easily anticipate and act quickly if a threat is approaching, integrate new innovative hardware solutions with our existing infrastructure, mitigate impacts and maximise the full value of our ocean monitoring efforts,” she said.
Scoot’s other customers include Grieg Seafood BC.
