Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Innovasea has announced that its plankton monitoring software is now being used by two major salmon producers in Canada to detect algae levels in the water.
The company’s new cloud-based software, according to Innovasea, helps enhance plankton monitoring so that companies can predict when algae concentrations will be too high, protecting against potentially harmful algal blooms. Innovasea didn’t specify which companies in Canada are using the new software.
“Our new plankton monitoring solution adds a new layer of protection for marine fish farms by safeguarding stocks from deadly algal blooms and helping operators ensure their fish remain healthy,” Innovasea CEO David Kelly said.
Algal blooms can be a severe problem for ocean-based fish farms, and have caused millions of dollars in damages over the past several years. Most recently, an algae bloom in Chile’s Los Lagos region has so-far resulted in Chile-based Camanchaca losing USD 7.5 million (EUR 6.2 million) worth of salmon. In November last year, Cermaq Canada also faced a deadly algal bloom, which caused 10 percent mortality at three of its farms.
Innovasea’s new plankton monitoring system, the company said, will allow companies to easily catalog different types of phytoplankton and input data from water samples or visual inspections. It will also allow companies to record species, time, location, and concentration levels, which the software then uses to show “which phytoplankton are appearing, where they are showing up, and to what degree.” That data allows fish operators to get an early warning of potentially problematic levels of phytoplankton and algae in the water, giving extra time to take action.
The new software, the company said, is part of its platform of “aquaculture intelligence tools” providing real-time visibility of water conditions around the clock. The tools also allow farms to “make data-driven decisions from anywhere via PC, tablet, or smartphone.”
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