Bio-sensors: Discovering the secret life of oysters
Bio-sensors: Discovering the secret life of oysters
Australia produces an estimated 16 million dozen oysters annually with an estimated farm gate production value of $90-100 million. One of the challenges facing the oyster industry is understanding the effect of environmental conditions, such as salinity, temperature, and feed availability,on oyster growth and condition. This knowledge can then be incorporated into farming processes to help optimise the production of premium quality animals.
CSIRO and the University of Tasmania have developed a world first mollusc bio-sensor capable of delivering multiple physiological parameters in real-time from sentinel animals in commercial environments. Oyster bio-sensors are able to be deployed in commercial farms to provide farmers with real-time data on stock conditions.
The sensors, which are smaller than the size of a pea, connect to a credit card sized electronics board and are attached to ‘sentinel’ animals. They have been deployed on both abalone and oysters, and provide data on heart activity, animal and water temperatures, pressure (depth), light level and, in the case of oysters, shell gape.
The bio-sensor technology has the potential to assist in understanding the impacts of many environmental and management practices, and with the use of sentinel animals will enable farm managers to make better decisions for the short and medium term management of commercial stock for enhanced animal welfare and production.
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CSIRO Aquaculture contact
Mr John McCulloch – Senior Engineer, Data61