Student - February 26, 2009
HAPPY FISH THANKS TO BIG BROTHER
If you want politically correct coffee (whether organic or fair trade), there is plenty of choice at the supermarket. But if you are concerned about the fish you eat, it gets a bit harder. A welfare monitor for farmed fish has been developed which can help with this. Like a Big Brother, the system keeps a constant eye on the fish.
All this data is sent to a central computer which then produces advice for the fish farmer, explains Victor Immink of the LEI. Immink researched how the monitor can be used in practice – a stage that has not been reached yet. ‘Implementation will raise quite a few questions. For example, how do you handle this information? Who owns it? And do you need to set up a platform to steer the introduction process? If so, who should be involved?’
Nevertheless, the system has big advantages. The monitor can put together a sort of CV for every fish – in Immink’s words, ‘ a report that you send with it: this is what has happened to this fish. It makes it possible to bring in a labeling system in which specific qualities can be emphasized. You can compare it with the certification of coffee.’