Giving Compass' Take:

• Neo Chai Chin reports about a smart floating fish farm that has launched in Singapore, with high-tech solutions that can help support sustainable aquaculture. 

• How do recirculating aquaculture systems help relieve pressure on overfished and increasingly polluted oceans? Could vertical fish farms be an answer to food security?

• Here's an article on how aquaculture has its own unique sustainability challenges.

On a barge off northeastern Singapore, underwater cameras monitor barramundi and red snapper swimming in large tanks that can hold 1.8 million litres of water each.

The cameras are part of a digital system that monitors how well the fish are feeding, their growth, health and mortality rate. It also uses artificial intelligence to make increasingly precise analysis and predictions of the fish.

The farm uses a recirculating aquaculture system that allows the water conditions to be controlled and unaffected by the surrounding seas. Water in the closed containment system is recirculated and requires only a 5 to 10 per cent top-up each day to make up for losses through evaporation. The water used for top-up is taken from the surrounding sea, and is filtered and sterilised to get rid of pathogens.

Solar panels and batteries on the farm provide the bulk of its energy needs, while the remainder is supplied by diesel.

The farm, measuring 100 by 27 metres, is operated by a company called Singapore Aquaculture Technologies (SAT). It began operating a few weeks ago and was officially launched on Monday (17 February) at a ceremony attended by Singapore’s Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli, Germany’s Ambassador to Singapore Dr Ulrich Sante and other guests.

When operating at full capacity next year, it expects to yield 250 tonnes of fish a year, said SAT co-founder Dirk Eichelberger.

Touted as a “smart floating fish farm”, Dr Eichelberger said it is setting new standards in Singapore’s aquaculture industry and is a solution that can be scaled and rolled out to the rest of the region.

Read the full article about fish farms using AI for more sustainable aquaculture by Neo Chai Chin at Eco-Business.