The sector of aquaculture has been recording constant growth trends at global level triggered by the progressive increase in world population and the resulting growing demand for food. The consumption of fish products has grown by 27% over the last ten years, and FAO estimates that aquaculture will meet 62% of global food demand in 2030.

The purpose of fish RISE is to increase economic social and environmental sustainability of aquaculture through the design and development of a wide methodological and technological framework for technological land-based and offshore aquaculture. The implementation of the framework solutions will follow a multidisciplinary approach so as to deal with the problem from multiple points of view by identifying the excellent solution in terms of methodologies and technologies.

The project consortium will develop two prototypes of sustainable technology assisted production systems in land-based and offshore aquaculture.

In order to give to the project a holistic structure, fish RISE aims to achieve 3 Macro Specific Objectives:

1. Food system: creation of technologies and methodologies to ensure the quality of edible products and other biotechnological (biopolymer) derivatives produced by the fish RISE platform;
2. Health management system: creation of technologies and methodologies to ensure the farmed fish health and growth, by controlling and monitoring the production environment;
3. Control and management system: creation of technologies and methodologies to ensure the functioning of the structure with respect to the external environment and the relationship between the farmed fishes and the external environment.

Planetek will enable the exploitation of Earth Observation data and technology towards more sustainable aquaculture systems, by providing EO data of water quality, contributing to the development of coastal marine forecasts at very high-resolution for an off-shore autonomous cage, supporting in the development of a Decision Support System for Aquaculture and overseeing the technical experimentation of both systems developed within the project.

Expected results

fish RISE will allow to monitor fish behavior according to habitat parameters, presence of nutrients, use of natural or artificial light, thanks to an ICT system for continuing monitoring, control and implementation, with the aim of both getting automatic information on biomass state and farming habitat – previously collected through sampling or human activities (whose results required longer waiting time), and improving the management of production processes and the aquaculture system itself. Moreover, the project will allow a smarter use of water, nutrients and processing waste, and to diversify the process outcomes.