--- title: "Farmers Are Using Facial Recognition to Keep Farmed Fish Healthy" description: "## Something Fishy" date: "2018-10-09" modified: "2018-10-09" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facial-recognition-fish" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Facial recognition" tags: - "aquaculture" - "cermaq group as" - "facial recognition" - "harald takle" - "the digest" --- # Farmers Are Using Facial Recognition to Keep Farmed Fish Healthy ![A European aquaculture giant that says it's working on a facial recognition system to track the health of millions of salmon.]() *\Image: Victor Tangermann\* ## Something Fishy Do all fish look alike? Well, not to a computer. You'd be excused if you weren't even sure fish had faces. But according to a [*Bloomberg* report](), a European aquaculture giant is planning to use facial recognition to track every individual fish among millions of farmed Atlantic salmon. The trick: differentiating minuscule variations in the patterns of spots around their fishy eyes. ## Face Off The value-add for Cermaq Group AS, which is developing tech to keep its farm-grown salmon healthier along the Norwegian coast, is that it will be able to track infectious diseases like sea lice in order to separate sick fish from the rest of the healthy population. "We can build a medical record for each individual fish," Harald Takle, the company's head researcher, told *Bloomberg*. "This will be like a revolution." ## Fish Forward Fish aren't the only animals subject to facial recognition. Farmers are [also exploring]() ways to use the tech to track the health of cows; earlier this year, researchers developed a system that [identifies individual primates]() for conservation purposes. At least these animals (unlike humans) won't have to try to answer the troubling questions about [privacy]() and [government surveillance]() that come up when we consider our own relationship with facial recognition technology. **READ MORE**: [Salmon Farmers Are Scanning Fish Faces to Fight Killer Lice]() \[*Bloomberg*\] ***More on facial recognition: [Facial Recognition Tech Catches Traveler With Fake Papers]()*** ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()