The iFarm system's sensors have artificial vision and recognize each individual based on the spot pattern of the salmon.
Photo: Cermaq Norway.
A good start to the year for Cermaq and its partner BioSort after the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries (Fiskeridirektoratet, Fdir, in its Norwegian name and acronym) announced on January 3, 2025, that its iFarm project has met all measurement criteria for the allocated development licenses. As a result, those four development licenses can now be converted into regular fish farming licenses to be assigned to Nordland.
Obtaining these licenses is an important step for Cermaq Norway, which has been working on the project for years. It should be recalled that just three months ago, in October 2024, the same Directorate of Fisheries rejected Mowi's application for 36 development permits for its 'Aquastorm' project - an ambitious concept for unmanned, offshore, subsea salmon farming - after founding the project too immature and complex for real-world testing at the time.
Cermaq and BioSort's project - which includes four iFarm, the latest deployed in Vesterålen - aimed to develop individualized farming technology for better control of fish health and welfare, while reducing environmental impact through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
The system's sensors have artificial vision and recognize each individual based on the spot pattern of the salmon. A sensor chamber records the number of fish, their size, the number of sea lice, and possible signs of disease for each fish.
Now, the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries has considered the project successful with the development of such recognition and data collection technologies that allow, for example, the creation of individual health histories for each fish; to have data on the fish in the cage during all life stages, covering a production cycle from placement to harvest; or to develop a sorting mechanism to facilitate the selection of fish with predefined characteristics, as well as a solution for post grading infrastructure.
In its statement on the licensing, Cermaq claimed that the iFarm technology developed together with BioSort has not only shown promising results in several production cycles but stands out as a solution that can strengthen the sustainability of the Norwegian aquaculture industry.
"We are proud that the Directorate of Fisheries recognizes the project and the potential of the technology we have developed together with our partner BioSort and many employees at Cermaq. This is an important step toward creating more sustainable aquaculture with better fish welfare and environmental adaptation," said Snorre Jonassen, Regional Director for Cermaq Nordland.
"We also want to thank our technology partner BioSort for the good collaboration and will contribute to further commercialization of the technology," he concluded.
