AquaSim, Skretting’s integrated digital platform, combines biology, quality and economics alongside sensors, feeders, internet of things (IOT) and other connected technologies into a sophisticated toolkit, using rich data to calculate expected performance and provide real-time production upgrades on an individual farm-by-farm basis. Embedding these smart control mechanisms into fish and shrimp farming systems and feeding data back into the analytics process, provides unprecedented visibility into production processes and the ability to truly optimize the value of the biomass. Furthermore, producers are better positioned to adapt and optimize to different scenarios, including biological events and demand shifts. Incorporation of this technology also provides the scope for businesses to grow.
The company said that they are still expanding its connected capabilities and algorithms. The steady stream of new sensors being made available to the market provide the scope to measure many new parameters, including but not limited to temperature, oxygen, salinity, pH, nitrate, ammonia, turbidity, solid matter etc., thereby making it an even more valuable system. AquaSim is also being rolled-out to more species. African catfish, Japanese bluefin tuna and Australian black tiger shrimp have become the latest aquaculture sectors to have growth and feeding models included in the system, with many more in the pipeline.
AquaSim utilizes the comprehensive portfolio of aquaculture species’ growth and feeding models built up over three decades that continues to be compiled and refined by Skretting’s research teams. Based upon appraisals of individual farming environments and each farm’s production targets and inputs, AquaSim provides tailored recommendations, including the most cost-effective stocking patterns, feed selection and feeding strategy to achieve the desired outcomes.
The digital platform is the core component of Skretting 360+, a ground-breaking concept launched by Skretting Ecuador in 2018 that enables the country’s shrimp farmers to sustainably optimize their harvests and the cost-efficiency of their operations while also reducing exposure to risk. Using the incorporated AquaSim tools, Skretting 360+ has the capability to benchmark the performance of each production cycle and to also provide feed and harvest predictions for individual ponds.
“The application in Ecuador was a defining moment for AquaSim. Its huge success there – with shrimp farmers able to operate in much a more cost-efficient, productive and sustainable manner – has caught the imagination of producers everywhere. There is a growing global awareness of the advantages to be had from connected technology that runs on real-time data, which is why we are now also seeing a rapid uptake of AquaSim in Chile, Spain and Australia to name just a few. Norway is also using it on a large scale to get robust forecasting on feed use. It has become a business-critical 24-7 application and we see opportunities in all directions,” Kristoffer Tveit, Skretting’s International Product Manager, said.
