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Alaska Seafood 2050 By Garret Evridge
hat will the Alaska seafood industry look like in 30 years? Given the pace of innovation, it’s not hard to envision an industry transformed by artificial intelligence, cloud computing, robotics, remote sensing, and electric motors and batteries. This transformation is already occurring across manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation sectors, among others. Consider the possibilities for the fishing and seafood industries. Fishing vessels could operate on electric or hydrogen power, serving as
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hubs for connected devices, including sensors and unmanned vehicles. Fishing gear could be “smart,” able to distinguish between targeted and nontargeted species. Advanced tools
informed by machine learning could suggest the optimal place to set pots or longlines based on historical data and current conditions. Seafood could be sorted automatically on deck with no human intervention; pots could passively discard undersized crab on the seafloor. Plant managers could have their operations at their fi ngertips, with real-time data about production, packaging, and shipping only a click away. Deliveries could be seamlessly coordinated with processing and shipping capacity. Advanced analytics, machine vision, and other forms of automation could increase product yield, enable predictive maintenance, and free staff from repetitive and injury-prone tasks. Regulators, too, could use smart sensors and real-time data to shift from periodic stock assessments to a dynamic
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