BPDC:FishCage

From TraceFood

Introduction:

Purpose: To define the best practices for capturing product, process, and quality data in fish cage farming sector.

Scope: This procedure applies to the process of capturing data in fish farming cages.

Motivation: Considerable variation exists in the current practice for data capture related to the production of fish in cages. The purpose of this procedure is to harmonize all data capture (parameters, measurement points and techniques) in sea-based fish farming so that the quality of the data coming into the traceability and production management systems becomes homogeneous. This will help ensure that data from different facilities are comparable, and that large amounts of data can be analyzed with minimum uncertainty.

Instructions:

1. Parameters

The following parameters must be recorded continuously in the fish cages:

• Oxygen level
• Temperature
• Salinity
• Water current velocity and direction
• Fish density (kg/m3)

The following parameters must be recorded as described:

• Light: at start and end times for use of light
• Fish mortality rate: daily

The following operational events must also be recorded:

• Time of washing of net
• Time of lice treatment
• Feeding time

Other static events must be recorded:

• Fish supplier
• Hatching date
• Size

2. Measurement frequency and measurement points

Measurement frequency All the required parameters (described above) must be measured continuously.

Measurement points

• Measurements inside the cage must be performed in the middle of the cage according to the WGS84 coordinate system.
• Measurements of water column must be done continuously between depth levels of 5 m to 15 m.
• Oxygen level and water current velocity must also be measured outside the cage on the upstream side at a distance of twice the diameter of the cage.

Note: Measurements must be made in all cages but it is very important to measure parameters in the cage with least flow of oxygenated water.