Using aquaculture farms as high-tech ocean observatories

Tackling the Ocean Decade Challenges demands a profound understanding of complex coastal conditions. Marine aquaculture sites are poised to unveil a wealth of invaluable new insights. 

Over the last decade, advances in technology have unlocked a new era for aquaculture. More and more fish farms are being equipped with sensors and associated technology to monitor the environment in real-time. The sector is embracing digitalization and moving into precision farming, so attention has moved towards data-driven decisions for day-to-day operations, sustainable management, and good governance. However, the true value of this data has not been realized. Marine aquaculture farms have an exceptional and unique insight into ocean conditions. For example, there are more than 95 000 marine aquaculture farms distributed along coastlines around the world. Many of these farms are collecting data leading to a potential data resource with spatial and temporal coverage that is impossible to achieve through research or government-led monitoring programs. 

Our work demonstrates why and how marine aquaculture sites can have huge potential as data providers for climate change assessments. Here, we present some simple steps that could be taken to improve the quality and consistency of data collection, processing and reporting that would greatly enhance the potential usability of marine aquaculture data for climate change assessments. Long-term datasets and monitoring programmes are essential for detecting changes in the marine environment, and in some cases providing early warning of potentially challenging conditions. Operationalizing marine aquaculture data for climate change monitoring would be a significant step towards achieving the Ocean Decade vision.  

This Presentation is a call for action for a meaningful engagement with the aquaculture sector to support their contribution to actionable and timely information.