Fish-eating has been a part of the cultural tradition of many people and offers nutritional benefits, including protein, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and essential micronutrients.

Owing to these dependencies on fishes, the style, methodologies, and techniques employed for fishing have changed with time.

According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations), Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms in coastal and inland areas involving interventions in the rearing process to enhance production. It is probably the fastest growing food-producing sector and now accounts for 50 percent of the world's fish used for food. Aquaculture is also the production of shellfish, crustaceans, and seaweeds that are important for human body nutrition and the pharmaceutical industry.

Aquaculture or aquafarming that dates back to almost 4000 years has depended chiefly on conventional farming practices in feeding or disease prediction areas. However, today companies and farmers are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve operations.

As stated by FAO, by 2030, aquaculture is expected to account for two-thirds of human fish consumption. There is no doubt that this increasing demand had impacted the sources as well the practices used. Fortunately, technology will assist in sustainable practices among fisheries.

So, let's first understand what is sustainable aquaculture all about:

• To ensure farmers earn a fair reward from farming
• To ensure that there is an equitable sharing of costs 
• To promote job creation
• To have enough food supply and ensure it is accessible to all
• To employ environment-friendly practices for the benefit of future generations
• To ensure that aquaculture development is orderly

Artificial intelligence is improving aquaculture by making farmers understand the analytics of how their inputs affect fish growth under various conditions. This makes fisheries understand various feeding strategies. These AI systems may make the most of the cloud infrastructures to provide analysis and find anomalies to win the faith of the farmers with data-driven insights.

The involvement of AI can significantly reduce overfishing through data collection systems using AI to bring in accountability in harvesting practices. Today sensors, drones, and robots are being avidly used for data collection and then feeding it to sophisticated algorithms for improved decision making.

For most of the companies that depend on natural resources, the success depends a lot on establishing a delicate balance between exploitation and conservation. This applies to the fishing sector, where the demand for seafood continues to rise. AI is helping the industry in increasing yields without depleting the fish stocks. Depletion of fish stock can be of due to overfishing, disease, or environmental changes.

Sea lice are said to be a threat to Norway's wild salmon population, which is a valuable salmon farming industry. With the help of IBM launched the AquaCloud platform, the Seafood Innovation Cluster intends to help researchers and scientists gain new insights through massive data collection and analysis.

This project focused on sea lice management, using AI to aid in the monitoring of infestations' development and spread within the environment. The platform gathers data from salmon farms across Norway and uses sophisticated machine learning techniques to help predict and prevent sea lice outbreaks. This led to effective breeding, area management, and control of pathogens.

On the same lines of harnessing the potential of AI, an Indian aquaculture technology start-up, Aquaconnect offersFarmMOJO, a mobile application that assists shrimp farmers in predicting diseases and enhancing water quality. "Smart technology is the key to better productivity and disease management," says Aquaconnect CEO Raj Somasundaram.

In another beautiful AI-powered strategy for better and more effective aquaculture, Shoal, a robotic fish, uses AI or swarm intelligence (SI), to detect pollution underwater. These robots set out as a group and are capable of navigating their environment while avoiding obstacles such as other robotic fish. They recharge themselves at charging stations and generally make decisions autonomously.

Fishing companies are considering simpler technologies such as camera and feeding systems, and are incorporating AI based system learning into their technology to gain a competitive advantage and meet rising customer expectations and market demand.

Several onboard or underwater devices today can automate and facilitate laborious processes while generating detailed and reliable data. These sensors are used to gather and record information on parameters such as vessel location, gear types, catch, species, volume, biophysical characteristics, and discards. Vessel-Monitoring Systems (VMS) can collect information on a vessel's position, speed, and heading and send valuable information to authorities around estimated catch and the start and end times for their fishing operations.

Sensors, cameras, and fuel-monitoring systems can also be placed onboard or next to underwater nets for real-time tracking. Automatic Identification System (AIS), another technological advancement, is designed to complement radar systems and decrease the likelihood of marine collisions.

This is true that fully automated aquaculture is still not a reality, as the farmer's intuition, approaches, and experience are still critical in the process. There is a huge possibility that we will witness an intense wave of automated fisheries with AI at the core producing more seafood to feed the growing world population while reducing the cost and environmental footprint of aquaculture operations. In this world we live, technology is no longer an option but a necessity.

Photo by Shamim Hasan from Pexels