MSc in Marine Coastal Development Gaute Alexander Nedberg Helberg at the Norwegian College of Fishery Science (NFH) will Tuesday 17 March 2026 hold his trial lecture and defend his thesis for the PhD degree in Natural Science.
Trial lecture on assigned topic will take place at 10.15: "Monitoring of production environment and fish welfare in aquaculture"
Later, at 12.15 he will defend his thesis entitled: "Acoustic characteristics of Atlantic salmon feeding behaviour in RAS: Possibilities and pitfalls of using passive acoustics for monitoring in tanks"
Head of Department Professor Bjørn Petter Finstad at the Norwegian College of Fishery Science will lead the disputation.
Popular Science Summary
It can be difficult to provide fish with the right amount of feed at the right time in intensive aquaculture systems. Too much leads to feed waste, and not enough can cause competition and welfare issues. This thesis explored whether passive acoustic methods, recording sounds in tanks (the soundscape), can be used to optimize feeding in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) that often hold fish at high densities in turbid water. The characteristics of specific feeding sounds, in addition to other sounds related to feeding behaviour, were described for Atlantic salmon. Sounds from system operations that could interfere with the detection of fish sounds, but also provide crucial information about system performance, were also documented. Combined, the findings of this thesis present possibilities and pitfalls for using passive acoustic methods to monitor both fish behaviour and system performance in commercial RAS farms and research facilities.
Evaluation Committee
Supervisors
Streaming
Both the trial lecture and defense and will be streamed and recorded:
Thesis
The thesis is available in Vitenarkivet