Development of Observation Device with Multi Sensor Platform for Underwater Aquaculture Cages

With the growing global demand for marine products, offshore aquaculture, which enables large-scale aquaculture compared to conventional coastal aquaculture, is drawing attention. In offshore aquaculture, the occurrence of red tide due to residual food can be suppressed by the circulation of ocean currents, and the environmental load can be reduced. On the other hand, since the farmed cage is located in a remote area, there are problems such as the cost of transporting food, the storage of a large amount of food, and the management of facilities in the event of a typhoon. In addition, it is especially important to manage the environmental information in the cage in order to understand the health condition of farmed fish in remote areas. If a device that measures water quality, which is one of the environmental information, is left in the sea for a long period of time, dirt such as algae will adhere and the measurement performance will deteriorate. This time, we developed an air pressure control system that allows the water quality sensor in the sea to enter the water only when measuring, and implemented it in the observation device. This observation device enables long-term observation of various water quality data.