Above we detailed how the demonstrating units address the complex problems of feeding fish. Let’s add some numbers to get an idea of the impact they will have on food security and the potential market for sales.

How big is the market for fish production, it is easily represented by the total global weight of fish produced by fish farm, statistics for 2011 show the world wide production of fish per year as[3]:

• 154 Billion KG

Yes you did read that correctly annually we produce one hundred and fifty billion kilos of fish in fisheries around the globe, this is even higher than the global production of beef. It is also rising at a fast rate.

Estimates for the cost of feeding fish in fisheries around the globe at between forty to sixty percent [40-60%] of the total production cost [4]. Making the optimal delivery of food a primary area of interest, an increase in efficiency here can lead to large increases in productivity and profit.

Many of these fisheries feed their ponds once per day, scientific studies have shown that decreasing the feed spacing and taking more control over the feed amount can lead to [5]:

>43% increase in Fish Growth [by weight]

>24% Increase in Food Efficiency

That is not taking into account food loss due to human error etc, so these numbers could well be truly higher. The technology presented here has within its capabilities the power to feed the fish efficiently and autonomously to reproduce the increases in efficiency and overall production reliably over the whole growing season period of the fish. Using control theory and system modeling it is quite right to believe we can extend these increases in productivity and food efficiency even further.

I would like to live in a world where food security is a thing of the past and that is why my plan is to release all technologies and simple building techniques openly to the public domain. Making a profit by selling extremely well packaged and optimized version of the technology to those that want an off the shelf solution or are looking for the best performance from their system.

The size of these fish rearing farms varies greatly, in the east it is a combination of many small scale operations and in the west substantially larger organizations. The products each requires will be drastically different, one wanting a well built unit that is plug and play and the other wanting the product and customization of their installation to maximize its abilities. To succeed both products will have to look great and have an excellent user interface. This is where I believe the 6 months at HackaDay would prove to be an excellent opportunity to make this and other meaningful projects happen.