Advanced Technology in Aquaculture – Smart Feeding in Marine Fish Farms

In this chapter, we discuss how digital tools can be used to achieve more intelligent feeding and nutrition in commercial cage-based farming. Using farmed salmon as a model species, we first outline industrial practices in cage-based farming, and then present the state-of-the-art in how digital technologies are being utilized in aquaculture research and industry. We then discuss how the intelligent feeding methods of the future could be devised based on the current state-of-the-art, and further how these could potentially be important for ongoing industrial developments toward new production concepts for fish farming. Our findings show that many of the digital components required to realize intelligent feeding systems in commercial fish farms are already in place, or under development. It is thus already possible to start combining existing systems into new technological solutions that improve our ability to monitor, adjust, and optimize the feeding process in aquaculture fish production. This is the focus of several ongoing research efforts that aspire to apply the principles of precision fish farming. A similar trend is also present in the industrial sector, manifested through the rapid growth in the portfolio of commercially available products for feeding optimization in aquaculture.