OceanLab node 3 Aquaculture is integrated in and operated by SINTEF ACE as a full scale laboratory for developing and testing aquaculture technology. Four industrial size commercially operated sites in Møre & Romsdal and Trøndelag are prepared for full scale R&D with/ without live fish.

The research is made possible through a research aquaculture license, that allows the laboratory to farm fish commercially. A commercial fish farming company operates the sites and SINTEF ACE has well established routines, procedures as well as technical equipment and infrastructure for carrying out research and testing.

The license is spread over four sites that cover all smolt releases, and fish in different size categories is always available.

In addition, the sites cover different environmental conditions such as fjords and exposed locations.

SINTEF ACE provides a wide range of equipment, they administer a research vessel that can be used for transport to the sites as well as a mobile research platform, research ROVs, oceanographic buoys, oceanographic equipment to monitor the environment of the sites and cages, sonar systems to monitor the biomass as well as structural sensors that can measure the forces on the cages.

The infrastructure realized through Oceanlab is aiming to make research at the sites easier through:

The setup provided by node 3 for the sites is a comprehensive collection of permanent measuring sensors;

1. Permanent infrastructures at the cage level that provides plug'n'play functionality for most new sensors by providing:

a. Power
b. Internet
c. Ethernet connections, with and without PoE
d. Serial connectors
e. Analog connectors

2. Long term dataseries from standardized equipment at each site

• Weather
• Wind
• Air pressure
• Air humidity
• Waves
• Current

b. Environment

• Oxygen saturation
• Salinity
• Temperature

c. Biomass

• Echosounders

3. Long term dataseries from specialized equipment at some sites
a. Structural forces

• Load shackles
• Accelerometers

4. Short time dataseries from specialized equipment that can be rented for specific projects.

• Splitbeam sonar
• Stereo cameras
• ROV
• Crane automation

The infrastructure of node 3 will also provide local storing of data in the field that will transmit the data regularly to the cloud. Data will be made available through the solution being developed by node 5: Systems and e-infrastructure.