By Aquaticode
Hatcheries producing sea bass and sea bream have traditionally relied on manual visual assessment to identify weak or unviable fish at an early stage. This process is labor-intensive, highly variable, and provides little biological accuracy at the earliest life stages.
Aquaticode has entered into an agreement with Cooke ESPAÑA to develop a new AI-based phenotyping product line aimed at supporting earlier and more consistent decision-making in bass and bream hatcheries. The collaboration explores how AI phenotyping can be applied to fry at commercial scale, representing a new direction for the industry.
“Early-stage decisions have an outsized impact on the sustainability and profitability of aquaculture,” said Stian Rognlid, CEO of Aquaticode. “This collaboration is about exploring how AI phenotyping can help hatcheries make those decisions earlier, with greater biological insight.”
In hatchery production, identification of developmental issues and weakness indicators allows producers to reduce unnecessary feed, labor, tank capacity, and energy use. This results in lower production costs, more uniform growth groups, improved welfare outcomes, and a reduced environmental footprint through decreased feed waste and associated emissions.
“In sea bass and sea bream, variation strongly influences long-term performance,” said Alberto Morente, Juvenile Production Manager, Cooke ESPAÑA. “Exploring a technology-driven approach to identifying unviable fry allows us to improve animal welfare, as well as direct space, feed, and attention toward stronger groups from the start. It brings scientific precision to a step of the production cycle that has historically depended on manual judgement.”
The agreement represents an expansion of Aquaticode’s species roadmap and aligns with the company’s broader strategy to make AI-based phenotyping available across more species and more stages of the aquaculture value chain.
About Aquaticode
Aquaticode is the global leader in AI phenotyping and sorting for aquaculture. The company’s multi-sensor imaging and deep-learning systems have processed tens of millions of salmon, providing hatcheries with real-time insight into health, robustness, and performance.
About Cooke España
Cooke España, part of Cooke Inc., is a leading Mediterranean aquaculture company producing sea bass, sea bream, and meagre in Spain. With 40 years of experience, operating under Culmarex and Bandera Bronzini brands it focuses on innovation, sustainability, and fish welfare to supply markets in Europe and North America. Cooke España has recently expanded with new hatchery facilities in the Balearic Islands.
