Aquaculture management system upgraded, technology builds smart farming to fill the gaps
The Fisheries Research Institute recently held an observation event highlighting smart aquaculture fisheries. In addition to presenting the Institute's 3-year project results, it also invited Shengdiao Aquaculture Technology, a long-term partner with the Institute in breeding technology, to share new-style facilities including HDPE ecosystem aquaculture, smart water quality monitoring systems, and movable aerators, attracting more than 10 aquaculturists and industry representatives from Yunlin, Pingtung, Taitung and other places to attend the observation.
"The environmental changes are getting bigger and bigger, so aquaculture must learn to adapt." Huang Yisheng, second-generation head of Shengdiao Aquaculture Technology, said that about 6 years ago he began collecting data on water quality, dissolved oxygen and other factors in the ponds, and found that at 3 a.m., because of low air pressure, the dissolved oxygen levels in the water were also low. Although paddlewheel aerators can promote the movement of bottom water flows, their range of action is limited, so he and his father set about designing a movable aerator linkage device that allows the paddlewheel to move across the water surface and expand the area affected by dissolved oxygen.
Knowing the conditions inside the pond was not enough. At Huang Yisheng's farm there are also barometers, wind vanes, rain gauges and other equipment used to collect meteorological data. For example, wind direction affects the position of the paddlewheel: running the paddlewheel at the windward end helps water flow spread, while running it at the leeward end only wastes electricity. The air pressure values that most people only see on weather forecasts also play a role in assessing dissolved oxygen in the pond. Huang Yisheng used air pressure to explain the old saying "when the south wind blows through, the fish will lift their heads," which is because when a warm, low-pressure south wind blows through, it affects the dissolved oxygen in the water, and fish at the bottom will rise to breathe because of insufficient oxygen.
However, Huang Yisheng admitted that these data have only produced results in recent years. About 3 years ago, with the help of his wife, who has a background in computer science, Huang Yisheng achieved the feat of managing fish ponds without going out to patrol the fish. His wife helped identify the key influencing factors to set parameters, and through a PLC control system, the aerators and water pump motors are started according to different values. On the system platform, the operating status of various facilities can also be monitored. If lightning strikes are possible, the equipment can be shut down directly on a mobile phone to protect the safety of the aquaculture pond. Huang Yisheng, who came into contact with his family's aquaculture business in junior high school, believes that the ultimate purpose of these facilities is to save time and labour, so that the aquaculture industry is no longer a 24-hour physical job with only winter as a rest period, but one in which aquaculturists can also have a better quality of life. "Technology comes from human laziness," Huang Yisheng said.
In addition, in view of the aquaculture industry's situation of extracting groundwater and low winter temperatures being unfavourable for aquaculture, Huang Yisheng and his father also invested in the development of systematic aquaculture equipment, using plastic steel and HDPE materials to design standardized aquaculture ponds with insulation effects and equipped with testing instruments. These can be connected to existing fish ponds through pipelines, using the farming characteristics of different species to achieve a state of recirculating water aquaculture. Huang Yisheng said that over the past 4 years he and his father have tried species such as fish, shrimp, golden clams and basa fish, and have mastered a standardized aquaculture process. They can also give facility recommendations according to different customer needs, and they are quite confident in this set of equipment.
Huang Yisheng introduces the detection items on the control panel, which allow information to be received on a mobile phone page and the startup status of each device to be monitored.