CSIRO is developing automated sensors and software to assist the prawn aquaculture industry.
The two major costs for prawn farms in Australia are feed pellets and labour. These overlap when it comes to measuring how much food the prawns are eating because current techniques are manual and therefore labour intensive.
Through the Food Futures Flagship, CSIRO is developing automated sensors that accurately measure the feed consumed by prawns.
Current activities
The combined impact of CSIRO's prawn projects is expected to double the value of the Australian prawn industry by 2020.
CSIRO has developed a submersible sensor containing a digital camera that records images of the surface of the feeding tray. The images are processed by computer and advanced processing algorithms are being developed to extract information, such as how much food has been eaten, from the images.
Next stages of this project include:
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deploying the sensor at a working prawn farm
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evaluating the performance of the unit against existing manual methods
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developing algorithms for estimating the sizes of prawns from images of the feeding tray.
Outcomes
Sensors that provide continuous information about feed consumption in prawn ponds will:
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reduce overfeeding of farmed prawns
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reduce nutrient levels in farm effluent, reducing the environmental impact of prawn farming
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provide better information on the feeding efficiency of farmed prawns
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improve the health of farmed prawns and reduce the use of antibiotics in countries that permit their use (antibiotics are not used routinely in Australian aquaculture)
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enable better selection of brood stock for breed engineering.
Partners
Through the Food Futures Flagship, researchers across CSIRO are working on this project with Food Sciences Australia.
Our commercial partner is AQ1 Systems.
More prawn industry research
This project is one of a group of CSIRO prawn aquaculture projects.
The combined impact of CSIRO’s prawn projects is expected to double the value of the Australian prawn industry by 2020.
Learn more about Improving tiger prawn farming.
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The Tasmanian ICT Centre is jointly funded by the Australian Government through the Intelligent Island Program and CSIRO. The Intelligent Island Program is administered by the Tasmanian Department of Economic Development and Tourism.