Fishing technology company Optimar has produced a nephrops-stunning and -tailing machine that was instrumental to a project recognized at the 2025 Catch Welfare Innovation Award ceremony.
The award, sponsored by the Catch Welfare Platform, recognizes advances in the field of animal welfare that are likely to produce economic advantages for fishing stakeholders.
The winning project was the result of Fisheries Innovation and Sustainability (FIS) partnering with Optimar and others to automate the process of stunning and tailing nephrops at sea.
The Valderøya, Norway-headquartered company developed the machine, which automates the traditionally time-consuming and potentially inhumane process of live-tailing at sea.
“Today’s manual handling is both demanding and physically challenging for the crew while also presenting challenges related to animal welfare,” Optimar said in a press release about the news.
Optimar Research and Development Head Lars André Langøyli said that the machine leverages the company’s years of “experience to ensure good animal welfare by stunning the nephrops first."
"After that, the process is handled by a machine that uses the latest camera technology and machine learning to divide each nephrops into a tail portion and a head portion," he said.
Catch Welfare Innovation Award Judge Mike Breen said that the project had produced an “innovative solution to two real-world problems: animal welfare and the socioeconomic sustainability of a local, commercial fishery.”
The machine was tested aboard the commercial vessel Golden Ray, part of the U.K. nephrops fishery fleet, in May 2025. Optimar worked with fishers and other stakeholders to integrate the technology and assess performance.
“The award-winning prototype offers a more humane process and provides a safer and more efficient workflow on board,” Optimar said.
Optimar Sales Manager Mårten Jørgensenen added that the "project shows what’s possible when the entire industry works toward the same goal.”
“The technology has to withstand real life at sea, and that’s exactly the standard we set at Optimar,” Jørgensen said.
