Is an Underwater Aquaculture Camera Useful for Seabed Aquaculture?
Hits: 586 Time: August 30,2025
In seabed aquaculture scenarios (such as deep-sea cage aquaculture and seabed bottom-sowing aquaculture), the "invisibility of the underwater environment" has long been a core pain point restricting aquaculture efficiency and risk control. Traditional methods relying on diver inspections and surface visual observation are not only costly and inefficient but also struggle to capture real-time key information such as the status of seabed fish schools, cage net integrity, and sediment conditions. The emergence of underwater aquaculture camera, however, provides a "visual monitoring solution" for seabed aquaculture. Its value is far from being a "dispensable auxiliary tool"; instead, it is a core device empowering seabed aquaculture from three dimensions: "risk prevention and control, cost optimization, and precision management". Its specific functions can be analyzed based on actual aquaculture needs:
Risks in seabed aquaculture are more hidden and have more serious consequences: if deep-sea cages are damaged due to ocean current impacts or marine organism bites, the escape of cultured organisms (such as salmon and large yellow croaker) may cause a single loss of hundreds of thousands of yuan. If bottom-sown scallops and sea cucumbers suffer from oxygen deficiency due to sediment coverage or are attacked by harmful organisms (such as starfish), it will be too late to remedy the situation by the time abnormalities are detected on the water surface. Through "24/7 seabed monitoring", underwater aquaculture camera transform these risks from "post-event remedy" to "pre-event early warning":
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Real-Time Monitoring of Cage Net Damage: For deep-sea cage aquaculture, cameras adopt a 316L stainless steel shell and anti-salt spray coating, enabling stable operation at a water depth of 10-50 meters. A 120° wide-angle lens captures real-time images of the cage net status—even tiny holes larger than 5mm can be automatically marked via AI recognition technology, and alarm information is pushed to the farmer’s mobile phone (via SMS/APP notification) within 10 seconds. This prevents the expansion of net damage caused by long manual inspection cycles (usually once every 15 days);
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Visualization of Sediment and Organism Status: When used in seabed bottom-sowing aquaculture, cameras can be mounted on underwater robots (ROVs) or fixed in bottom-sowing areas to clearly capture whether the sediment is covered with sludge (to determine if shellfish are oxygen-deficient), whether sea cucumbers are active normally (whether they enter summer dormancy due to abnormal water temperature), and whether harmful organisms such as starfish are gathering. After a sea cucumber bottom-sowing aquaculture base in Shandong introduced cameras, the timely cleaning rate of harmful organisms increased by 90%, and the survival rate of sea cucumbers rose from 65% to 82%.
The cost of manual inspection in seabed aquaculture is much higher than that in freshwater or near-shore aquaculture: a single deep-sea inspection by a diver costs approximately 2,000 yuan, and it is difficult to conduct frequent inspections due to wind, waves, and water temperature restrictions (low sea water temperature in winter can easily cause divers to lose physical strength). If the aquaculture area is far from the shore, offshore inspections also require additional costs such as ship rental and fuel. underwater aquaculture camera can greatly reduce reliance on labor and cut costs in two ways:
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Replacing High-Frequency Diver Inspections: One underwater aquaculture camera can cover a 50-100㎡ aquaculture area and monitor continuously 24/7, saving 48,000-60,000 yuan in diver inspection costs annually (calculated based on 2 inspections per month). For example, after deploying 8 cameras at a salmon deep-sea cage base in Fujian, the original 4 monthly diver inspections were reduced to 1 per quarter, saving more than 500,000 yuan in labor costs alone each year;
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Reducing Ineffective Labor Input: Traditional seabed aquaculture requires assigning dedicated personnel to be on duty at the shore 24/7 to judge underwater conditions through surface observation, which is inefficient and prone to misjudgment. Cameras support remote real-time viewing (accessible via mobile phone/computer), allowing one staff member to manage more than 10 aquaculture areas simultaneously, reducing labor costs by over 60%.
Precision management in seabed aquaculture (such as precise feeding and growth monitoring) is key to improving efficiency, but traditional methods lack effective data support: estimating feeding amounts based solely on experience can easily lead to residual bait sinking to the bottom and polluting the sediment (increasing water exchange costs) or insufficient feeding affecting growth; sampling to monitor the growth of fish schools is error-prone and likely to disturb cultured organisms. Through "data-driven monitoring", underwater aquaculture camera provide a basis for precision management:
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Precise Feeding to Optimize Feed Costs: Cameras can record the feeding intensity of fish schools (such as the foraging frequency of salmon and the amount of remaining bait) and adjust the feeding amount based on water temperature and dissolved oxygen data (linked to water quality sensors). After a large yellow croaker deep-sea cage base in Zhejiang adopted this method, feed waste was reduced by 15%, the breeding cycle of individual large yellow croaker was shortened by 7 days, and each cage increased revenue by 30,000 yuan annually;
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Real-Time Monitoring of Growth Uniformity: Through AI counting and size recognition functions, cameras can automatically count the proportion of fish schools of different sizes (such as the number of salmon with a body length of 20cm and 25cm), judge whether growth is uniform, and separate weak or sick fish in a timely manner to avoid growth differences caused by "larger fish suppressing smaller ones". The qualification rate of commercial fish specifications increased by 20%.
Some people worry that "the harsh seabed environment makes cameras prone to damage", but today’s underwater aquaculture camera have been specially designed for seabed scenarios: they have an IP68 waterproof rating and can be immersed in water at a depth of 50 meters for a long time (special models support deep seas up to 100 meters); they can withstand a low-temperature range of -10℃ to 60℃, adapting to the low temperature of the seabed in northern winters; the lens surface is coated with an anti-marine organism adhesion film to reduce the adhesion of barnacles and algae (with monthly fresh water rinsing, the lens can be kept clean). Cameras at a seabed scallop aquaculture base in Dalian, Liaoning, have operated stably for 3 consecutive years with a failure rate of less than 5%, proving their durability in the seabed environment.
In conclusion, for seabed aquaculture, underwater aquaculture camera are by no means an "extra expense" but an "investment tool" that brings clear returns. They not only solve the core pain points of seabed aquaculture—"invisibility, poor management, and high costs"—but also lay the foundation for the future intelligence of seabed aquaculture (such as optimizing aquaculture plans with big data analysis). Whether from the perspective of short-term risk prevention or long-term efficiency improvement, introducing underwater aquaculture cameras is a practical choice for seabed aquaculture practitioners.
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