Attendees took the opportunity to see the equipment and software in action over the four days of the Seafood ShowHow, giving them a first-hand look at how Marel’s turnkey solutions can help optimize processing performance.
Many attendees booked VIP demos to run their own product on the lines and throughout the event, the Seattle office’s new Innova lab provided a great setting for in-depth discussions about how the software improves processing performance and control.
But up first, on day one of the event, guest speakers tackled a range of pertinent fish processing issues – and not always in the most conventional or anticipated way:
Natural resource management - Goldilocks style
Professor Ray Hilborn from the University of Washington challenged attendees to consider unconventional solutions to contemporary challenges facing fisheries management. Hilborn is one of the principal investigators for the University of Washington’s long-running Alaska Salmon Program.
Ray explained, for example, how the concept of ‘over fishing’ is often misunderstood – to the point that now some fish stocks are in trouble due to ‘under fishing’. Hilborn uses the so-called Goldilocks plot to chart the performance of the fisheries management system in maximizing long-term sustainable yield or, put simply, to show what level of fishing is not too much, not too little, but just right.
Implementing technology into fish processing
Colin Tippett, VP Process Improvement at Icicle Seafoods/Cooke Aquaculture, shared practical insights into implementing technology into fish processing at remote locations.
Tippett explained how Icicle Seafoods has tackled this challenge. He talked about the differences between implementing technology at farm-based processing facilities versus Alaskan facilities, highlighting, for example, the culture shock that sometimes comes with transitioning from ‘gut instinct’ to ‘data driven’ production control.