How an Australian Hatchery Uses Automation to Count Crayfish
The Australian Redclaw Crayfish is native to freshwater streams and lakes of Northern Queensland and the Northern Territory of Australia. Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans related to lobsters but generally smaller in size.
The Australian Crayfish Hatchery (ACH) is not only the world's first hatchery of its kind, specifically established to solve industry-wide hatching losses, it is also the most advanced.
Its highly trained staff, led by Dr. Lisa Elliott, regularly deploys the latest disease monitoring and management technologies, resulting in proven significant decrease in mortality rates, increased growth rates, and overall healthier, antibiotic and specific pathogen free redclaw craylings, for the benefit of all stakeholders down the supply chain, be they growers, restaurateurs or consumers.
In addition to technology developed by the ACH team, ACH have worked with software technicians to develop technologies specific to their needs. One such need was counting of redclaw eggs. This proved to be a challenging job as redclaw eggs differ in colour, shape and size, making development of an accurate counting method difficult.
