Development of a mobile app for early warnings in aquaculture farms: Identification of end-user needs

Aquaculture has been the fastest-growing food production sector for decades. Nowadays, it is directed towards economically, socially, and environmentally acceptable production. Mariculture production begins at the sea, in cages, where fish is being kept until the appropriate market weight and size is achieved. There are different ways how it can affect the marine environment. Fish products, feces, medicine, food, and other factors have an impact on the sea quality parameters. Marine pollution considers the presence of undesirable materials in the ocean environment that affect mariculture, affecting the seawater's physical, chemical, and biological conditions. To help prevent and to monitor marine pollution, sensors connected with artificial intelligence, Internet-of-Things, applications, and other software are used. The use of multiparameter probes with different sensors in the sea enables the detection of changes in real-time and instantaneous warning. A mobile application connected to the probe provides information about parameters like salinity, sea temperature, oxygen, depth, pH etc. The goal of the developed mobile application is to prevent more serious marine pollution and impact on the production and environment by monitoring sea conditions, reacting on time in the case of anomalies, recognizing unusual patterns in the parameter value distribution from the existing data, as well as expanding the circle of people who can notice and report possible pollution. An early warning algorithm is being developed based on normal, abnormal, and reference values. This work introduces the development of a mobile app, with the emphasis on the basic requirements of the end-user.