Anders Fossøy, General Manager of Tidal Norway.
Photo: Tidal Norway.
Tidal, a spin-off from Google X specialising in aquaculture AI and robotics, has unveiled a new system designed to tackle one of salmon farming’s most costly problems. The company announced its new product, Tidal Lice Control, at AquaNor 2025 in Trondheim this week, saying it can detect and neutralise lice inside salmon pens without the need for manual handling.
According to Tidal, the autonomous system operates around the clock and is intended to reduce treatment costs, improve fish welfare and increase yields. Sea lice are considered one of the industry’s greatest challenges, with global losses estimated at more than USD 1 billion each year. Farmers are required by regulation to keep infestations below strict thresholds, often resorting to measures that can stress fish.
“As an industry, we’ve been living with the high costs and lost productivity that parasitic threats bring,” said Anders Fossøy, General Manager of Tidal Norway, via a press release. “We built Lice Control with the same mindset we had at Google X – applying AI and robotics to real-world, high-impact problems. Farmers can now protect fish without chemicals, stress, or downtime, which means healthier fish and lower costs.”
The system uses computer vision and an autonomous winch to monitor every pen 24 hours a day. When lice are detected, the system delivers targeted energy to eliminate them while avoiding harm to the fish. The winch is able to move both vertically and horizontally to follow the fish, ensuring coverage of the entire enclosure.
Tidal said the new technology is built into its existing platform, which already offers autonomous feeding, biomass estimation, welfare monitoring and automatic lice counting.
“Leveraging the early investments in core technology from our autonomous feeding solution – closed-loop control, spatial positioning, and precise computer vision – Tidal’s Lice Control is a natural evolution,” said Kristine Langaunet, Senior Sales Executive at Tidal. “By building Lice Control into the same system farmers already use for feeding and monitoring, we reduce the amount of equipment needed in the pen.”
The product is currently undergoing laboratory and field testing, with commercial rollout expected in 2026. The company previously announced the release of its new underwater camera remote monitoring system "Orca", in May this year.
Tidal, which began as a project within Alphabet’s X (formerly Google[x]), focuses on developing AI tools for sustainable aquaculture. Launched in July 2024, and headquartered in Silicon Valley, the company expanded into Norway last year, announcing the appointment of Anders Fossøy, former Aquabyte commercial director, as its general manager in Norway, in September 2024.