REAL LIFE NEWS: ONLINE OYSTERS
by Hazed
Continuing my catch-up of New Scientist magazines, I bring you a story from the February 28 issue…
A few weeks ago I wrote about connected cows – sensors that allow a farmer to monitor the health of a herd remotely. Now similar technology is being used for farming a different kind of creature: oysters.
The Barilla Bay Oyster Farm on the Tasmanian coast, which has been growing oysters for over thirty years, are fitting sensors the size of credit cards to some of their oysters’ shells. (They must be using oyster cards. That’s a London-based joke; go here for an explanation.)
In a trial run by a government-funded project, a sensor network is being built across Tasmania to link up several types of existing sensor, as well as install new ones, and create an agricultural database.
The sensor technology has got so sophisticated that it is now possible to monitor an oyster’s heartbeat through its shell. The sensors can also tell whether the shell is open or closed, which gives some information about the creature’s feeding habits. It records the water temperature, the light levels, and the depth of the oyster’s chosen settling place and monitors changes in the water’s salinity and oxygen levels. All of this data can be analysed in real time.
The scientists hope this will allow them to see how the oysters are growing without having to take them out of their baskets, which is the traditional, rather disruptive, method.
The Sense-T project is also aiming to use sensor technology with abalone, vineyards and cattle.”It’s when you put it all together that the exciting stuff happens," says Ros Harvey, Sense-T director.”We can find better ways to use our resources – how to do more with less."
