Challenge 11.1

How can technology help us to manage the impact of Marine Pen Fish Farms more sustainably?

Challenge Sponsor: Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

Ocean Intelligence

Our system allows monitoring fish farm impacts on seabeds where current methods don't work: rocky ground, coral-like habitats, and other sensitive ecosystems. We combine a sampler that works on any substrate with DNA-based analysis to produce compliance scores, with results in weeks rather than the months traditional methods take. Results report through a digital platform matched to SEPA's regulatory workflow.

Ocean Intelligence responded to CivTech Challenge 11.1

The Opportunity

Around 14% of Scotland's active fish farms sit over habitats that can't be monitored because they can’t be sampled and the current methods for assessing impacts don't work. Regulators across the world face the same problem. Our system is already used by New Zealand regulators and works on any seabed type.

Next Steps

Field testing across Scottish habitats during the 2026 monitoring season, with feed detection added later this year. From 2027, we will scale our system across Scotland's marine sampling network and seek to move into international markets.

The Team

We're an intentionally lean core team combining aquaculture expertise, digital platform development, and commercial scaling experience. We're backed by Cawthron Institute and the University of Tasmania for deep scientific and industry insight, and NatureMetrics for world-class eDNA analysis based in the UK.