Data-driven decision-making in the oyster industry

As filter animals, oysters are highly susceptible to water quality. If there’s been a lot of rain flooding into the estuaries where oysters grow, they can quickly pick up contaminants that could make people ill. Farmers and regulators want to avoid that at all costs — so when there is a perceived risk, oyster farms have to close until conditions improve.

The lack of supply is frustrating for the consumer — but it’s financially excruciating for farmers. During periods of high demand, such as Christmas and Chinese New Year, a day’s lost production can cost farmers $120,000 in foregone revenues.

In the Tasmanian oyster industry, Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome (POMS) has been wreaking havoc. Barilla Bay Oysters, once one of the state’s largest farmers, lost 70% of its harvest to the disease in February 2016, crippling its operations.

“We have no control over what oysters consume — if there is something coming down the river that isn’t appropriate we have no control. We could be closed for a couple of days or a couple of months depending on what is coming down the river,” explained Justin Goc, manager of Barilla Bay Oysters.

Harnessing data

The problem has been that in the past the industry has relied largely on rainfall gauges to assess when there may be a risk, and often been required to shut shop when there’s actually been no need. Analysis has revealed that around 30% of closures based on rainfall gauge readings are in fact unwarranted — the water quality and the oysters are fine.

However, the future looks brighter for Barilla Bay Oysters and the wider Tasmanian oyster industry, with the deployment of a technology solution developed by AgTech business The Yield, in partnership with Microsoft, Bosch and Intel.

The technology

The Yield is working with the Tasmanian Government and oyster farmers in 14 of the state’s estuaries to deploy the new system, which uses in-estuary sensors to collect data that is fed through Bosch’s ProSyst software through to the Microsoft IoT Hub in Microsoft Azure, where it is stored alongside national weather data. Environmental data and near real-time sensor data is combined and presented to oyster growers and regulators as rich dashboard visualisations for the previous week, today and tomorrow to enable faster decisions based on local information.

The Yield believes that its technology could be more broadly deployed in aquaculture and agriculture, allowing crop growers to know exactly when and how to irrigate, for example.

Planning during uncertainty

In the oyster industry, while salinity measurement is clearly important in terms of identifying contamination risks, water temperature is equally critical to assess the risk of the POMS virus. Knowing there is bad weather ahead, when it might be hard for crews to get out in boats to harvest oysters, means oyster farmers are able to fine-tune their rosters — shaving cost and boosting efficiencies.

Barilla Bay’s Justin Goc is optimistic that having access to more information much faster will help oyster farmers gain a better understanding of what is happening and “how we can plan in an uncertain future”.

He now knows the salinity and temperature of the water, and has tide and weather details at his fingertips to help roster staff. In the future he’s hopeful that even more data could be collected, such as algal profiles in the bays, which could provide insight as to which algae promote oyster growth, or potentially act as a POMS vector.

But ultimately he acknowledges: “It’s a hard business and you can’t control Mother Nature.”