Using RAMP to help automate aquaculture operations

Net pen for fish culture (NOAA).

Aquaculture of animals in tanks and net pens requires monitoring and maintenance of vitality, health, and normal behavior for efficient and economic operations. Presently, health is monitored by sampling for disease outbreaks, while vitality and behavior are observed by aquaculture technicians during the course of their daily activities of feeding, cleaning, and operation of facilities.

Inside net pen for fish culture (NOAA).

In tanks and net pens, animals can swim and feed normally. They can also respond to stimuli administered inside their rearing environment, such as light flashes, sound bursts, food scent, and touch. Responses to these stimuli can be in the form of reflex actions such as startle, orientation, depth distribution, aggregation, and dispersal. These reflex responses can be observed remotely and automatically using video, infra-red, and sonar technology in light and dark conditions. Reflex responses can be recorded and summed as RAMP scores for measures of impairment and correlation with mortality.

RAMP can be a quantitive measure of animal state and be used to help automate aquaculture monitoring and maintenance. When impaired responses to stimuli are observed, alarms can be triggered and technical staff can be alerted to changes in animal vitality, health, and behavior. Then on site alteration of operations can bring rearing conditions back to nominal states and return animals and their reflex actions to vitality and health.

Future research in aquaculture can consider the use of RAMP and automated reflex testing for development of efficient operation protocols and quality assurance. RAMP can also be used as a research tool for testing and validating new designs for aquaculture operations that optimize animal vitality and health.