About the app

A significant increase in the production of blue food is a vital part of meeting our planet's rising demand for nutrition. One of the factors limiting growth in the salmon aquaculture industry today is concerns over fish health and welfare, most of all as a consequence of handling salmon lice.

The production increase must happen sustainably, built on a solid knowledge base. The Norwegian aquaculture industry has proactively shared data for more than 10 years on the sector platform Sjømatdata (formerly Havbruksdata). The data is shared openly through Lusedata.no and Barentswatch.

Although the industry has shared data for many years, users of the lice data solution comment that "Even though we have shared data for ten years, we still have a lot to learn about what actually works”. Meaning how to use preventative and active measures against sea lice in different combinations, based on current environmental- and production conditions, to keep lice levels as low as possible through a production cycle.

First and second phase

All seafood data shared openly through Sjømatdata will be available through the Ocean Data Platform (ODP). Lusedata.no will use the data in ODP to enrich lice data with other relevant ocean data in the platform and, in the longer term, utilize the power in the ODP to handle a large variety of IoT (Internet of Things) data from, e.g., cameras, sensors etc.

In short, there are two main reasons for making the data accessible on the Ocean Data Platform. The first reason is combining seafood data with other ocean data made available in the platform. The second is the platform's power to handle a large variety of data made ready to use and easily accessible to the users.

The first phase of the Lice data project will transfer historical data and data already shared today to the new platform and provide an easier user interface. The second phase of the project is currently being scoped. The aim of phase two is to widen the reporting of data to include preventive measures, not only reactive ones. Additionally, tools will be developed to reduce the time fish health personnel spend gathering the data thereby freeing up time to focus on preventive measures to fight the salmon lice issue.

The Lice data project is the first step in the partnership between OPS sjømat and C4IR Ocean. At a later stage, data sets from fisheries, for instance, will also be shared. OPS sjømat and C4IR Ocean will continue to work together in defining projects which contribute to their common purpose – a sustainable future for fisheries and aquaculture. These projects will be open to others wishing to join.