ROVs are farms’ best friends

An increasing number of fish farms have been employing remotely operated vehicles (ROV). A safer, more cost-effective and easily-deployable alternative to commercial and staff divers, ROVs provide operators with a reliable way of performing challenging tasks around the farm.

In addition to being a convenient tool for net, line and mooring inspections, a Deep Trekker ROV can have a profound effect on fish health. ROVs have been shown to have a minimal effect on cortisol as compared to divers. Our new DTG3 Smart has built-in temperature and depth sensors and an available oxygen sensor allowing you the ability to create an accurate environmental profile of each of your pens in minutes. Our Mort Pusher and Mort Retrieval Systems allow you to move morts to uplifts, or surface them for further examination.

Our new 500-ml water and sediment samplers allow you to easily collect representative benthic samples to establish a baseline and discover changes quickly.

Many operators are using our ROVs and our DTPod submersible camera to minimize feed waste making them vital tools for any effective feed management strategy. Feeding to satiation is a very common practice, but it only allows you to see when fish at the surface have fed adequately. Weaker or smaller fish below the surface may not be able to compete for feed at the surface, and by the time feed has reached them it may be minimal, or it could have floated out of the pen entirely. A DTPod can be suspended by a winch and then, using its onboard motors, rotated on two axes to ensure you’re getting a full picture of how satiated your fish are.

A formalized ROV program also improves recruitment and retention rates. Young workers are hungry for new skills and want to learn about all of the new technologies coming to the farm. Farms can create specific ROV-related positions to appeal to talented young workers.

Deep Trekker’s aquaculture specialist Andrew Lawrence is eager to answer any questions you may have about how your farm can benefit from robotic solutions.
Reach out at alawrence@deeptrekker.com.