New Zealand’s Mt Cook Alpine Salmon embraces Ace camera technology
18 December 2024
Mt Cook Alpine Salmon operates a unique production system in the cold currents of New Zealand’s Southern Alps and needed an equally unique technological solution to improve its harvesting efficiency.
Having trialled Ace Aquatec’s A-BIOMASS® underwater camera as New Zealand’s first adopter of the technology, Mt Cook Alpine Salmon can now champion its merits, in particular the camera’s 97% accuracy averaged over multiple harvests over the last 18 months, and individual harvests as high as 99.75%.
Mt Cook Alpine Salmon, located 500-600m above sea level, farms its freshwater King salmon in multiple small square pens, of about 11m by 9m by 4m deep, spread out over a number of farm sites.
‘With relatively small volumes in shallow pens, we need to get around them all in a timely manner so we can identify fish growth,’ said Jon Bailey, Mt Cook Alpine Salmon General Manager of Aquaculture. ‘That’s specifically what we’re using the camera for at the moment, identifying which fish are ready to harvest without having to handle them. For the first six months, we were validating the results by taking images of fish that were about to be harvested and then comparing what the algorithm was telling us with actual harvest weights in the factory.’
‘Before, we only ever manually sampled 100 or so at a time so the accuracy wasn’t high. With this camera, we can sometimes get up to 1,000 fish a day going past the camera, so in two to three days we can have up to 3,000 samples. We’ve been getting over 97 per cent accuracy, which we’re really happy with.’
‘It’s good for the fish, too, because there’s less handling and that then cuts out unnecessary work so our people can go and do something more productive.’
A-BIOMASS® uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to bring precision to biomass measurement and distribution, which is transforming the way fish farmers monitor and grade their stocks.
Jon first heard about the camera when it was still in development, having met Ace Aquatec CEO Nathan Pyne-Carter ‘a long time ago’ and keeping an eye out for further innovations from the Dundee-based company.
‘I’ve always had this belief that anything Nathan turned his hand to has come to fruition in one form or another, so I have a lot of trust that he’s the sort of person who can make things happen. My first contact with Ace Aquatec was when I was working at another salmon producer and tried to persuade them to buy one of the humane in-water electric stunners (they eventually did, after I left). I got back in touch when I read in the trade press about a camera and Ace Aquatec’s technical team, who happened to be in New Zealand, brought along a demo for us to try out.’
That was two years ago and the A-BIOMASS® is now integral to Mt Cook Alpine Salmon’s production routine, currently deployed in two to three pens a week. At just 8.5kg, the fully automated camera is smaller and easier to manoeuvre than many on the market, making transporting it from pen to pen a ‘one-person job’, said Jon.
‘We use the current camera to decide which pen we’re going to harvest next. When we increase the number of cameras over the next year, we’ll use them for a range of different functions. Ultimately, it will also help with feed estimation, improving efficiency because we will know the size of the fish.’
Mt Cook Alpine Salmon has been farming in McKenzie Country, in New Zealand’s South Island, for 30 years, raising an annual tonnage of 2,500 tonnes in hydro canals, built 50 years ago to channel water from the glacial lakes to generate electricity.
In the constantly flowing cold freshwater, the fish get plenty of oxygen and exercise, producing healthy and lean animals. The pristine conditions are ideal not just for the salmon but also for A-BIOMASS®, providing exceptionally pure water quality for the camera’s visuals.
Despite the distance from Scotland, installing and operating the camera has been ‘a very collaborative experience’, with regular contact between the Mt Cook Alpine Salmon team and Ace Aquatec’s technicians in Dundee. And being the first salmon farmer in the country to embrace A-BIOMASS® technology, Mt Cook Alpine Salmon has attracted attention among local competitors, said Jon.
‘There’s certainly been a lot of interest because of the level of accuracy. I’ve been fielding calls from two of the big players here and one even asked to borrow the camera, but A-BIOMASS® is doing what we want it to do and while I’m happy to share data with other farmers, I’m not parting with it!’
