How Mørenot uses Spotter buoys to promote safe aquaculture operations
How Mørenot uses Spotter buoys to promote safe aquaculture operations
A closer look at how Mørenot utilizes Spotter buoys to make ocean data-driven decisions that increase operational efficiency.
Sofar Ocean
Aug 25, 2022
Mørenot is an international provider of solutions for the fishing, aquaculture, and seismic industries, committed to sustainably harvesting food from the sea.
Sofar Ocean is a San Francisco-based climate technology startup whose mission is to connect the world’s oceans to power a more sustainable future.
The Challenge
Mørenot collaborates with its aquaculture partners on a daily basis, helping them work safely and efficiently while at sea. One of the most unpredictable variables affecting operations is weather; in fact, real-time metocean conditions, such as waves, currents, and wind, often dictate which tasks can and cannot be completed on a given day.
Traditionally, onsite personnel decide whether or not, given present weather conditions, an operation can be completed. This leads to vastly different interpretations of what constitutes “safe” conditions across the hundreds of sites that Mørenot oversees. A subjective decision-making process like this creates uncertainty for company leaders, who cannot effectively factor weather into their operational strategy. These concerns extend to prospective partnerships, as well; how can Mørenot be sure that a new aquaculture site won’t present the same weather-related challenges as existing sites?
A Spotter buoy in Norway. Mørenot uses the data collected by Spotter to promote safer and more efficient operations at aquaculture sites.
The Solution
Mørenot partnered with Sofar Ocean to deploy a Spotter buoy at one of its customer’s aquaculture sites. Initially, the Spotter — which constantly collects wave, wind, sea surface temperature, and barometric pressure data — will allow Mørenot to cross-reference objective in-situ observations with onsite personnel’s subjective assessments of metocean conditions.
Over time, these comparisons will be used to identify patterns, backed by data, that reveal what conditions should be considered safe and unsafe. This will allow Mørenot to standardize the decision-making process; if wave heights are above a specific benchmark, for example, certain operations may cease while others proceed.
Ultimately, Spotter data will be integrated with the operations calendar that aquaculture site personnel access via Mørenot’s Aquacom platform. Users will be able to instantly see, given present metocean conditions and established standards, which tasks are safe to complete on a given day. This will make operations more efficient by improving planning and reducing weather-related downtime.
Why Sofar?
Yngve Askeland, CEO of Mørenot Digital, chose Sofar’s Spotter buoy because it is affordable, easy to deploy, simple to maintain, and easily connectable to Mørenot’s digital platform. Additionally, Yngve values the cellular connectivity and reduced power consumption made available by the Spotter platform. Both features increase Spotter’s reliability during winter in Norway, a central location of Mørenot’s operations.
Interested in learning more about Spotter? Schedule a demo with our team.