Technologically advanced tools such as those provided by Hidromod enable the implementation of precision aquaculture which maximize production and quality. The productivity and quality of aquaculture are influenced by several processes that occur in the aquatic environment. For example, predicting the water temperature allows adjusting the amount of feed to be given to the fish. Forecasting sea level variation allows an optimization of the energy spent on water pumping or scheduling pumping when water quality is more favorable.

Aquaculture operation and maintenance is often conditioned by meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic factors, depending on its characteristics.

Hidromod has proven experience in applying computer tools to manage data and provide predictions based on numerical models for aquaculture support.

Consultancy and Services:

Since 2017, environmental forecasts have been provided to Seaculture (JMA Group) to support a fish farm of sea bass in Sines. This farm currently produces about 500 tons in cages.

In collaboration with WAVEC, environmental conditions in a coastal area of ​​Morocco were studied in 2018 for the installation of JMA fish production cages. For Acuinova’s inland fish farm at Mira, Portugal, a study on the water quality intake from the sea was made in 2018. This farm currently produces about 2500 tons of turbot.

R & D & I projects:

Valormar (http://valormar.hidromod.com) – In this project, data management and forecasting tools are applied to several aquaculture units located in Portuguese coastal lagoons (Rias de Alvor, Formosa and Aveiro) with quite different environmental conditions.

HiSea (https://hiseaproject.com/) – The HiSea project aims to offer a service co-designed with users that provides high resolution data of water quality at sea that is used to give focused answers to specific questions from the targeted port and aquaculture sectors. HiSea is developing, testing and demonstrating, in operational mode, novel Copernicus-based downstream information services that will incorporate Copernicus Marine, Land and Climate Services Products, local monitoring data and advanced modelling in the service. This allows improving operation, planning and management of different marine activities in ports and aquaculture sectors.