Improving the Ergonomics of Harvest for In-Door, Closed System, Live Market Tilapia Production

摘要

Cost effective mechanical harvesting aids have been developed for an indoor, twenty-four pond, closed system aquaculture facility. Unlike conventional outdoor aquaculture, tilapia grown in this system are harvested and sold at live markets, thus requiring specialized harvesting equipment that maintains fish health and appearance. Using a partially submersed flighted conveyor, several high-stress, repetitive, injury inducing maneuvers have been eliminated from the previous catch and manually lift harvesting method. The system accommodates the weighing of filled baskets, and does not induce damage to the harvested tilapia. In addition, a larger bulk catching system has been developed which eliminates the need for the harvest crew to remove fish with the smaller baskets. With this approach, up to 150 kg offish can be extracted and weighed per batch. These improvements have reduced work fatigue as well as the number or harvest crew injuries. In addition, productivity measured as total fish harvested per worker-hour has increased significantly.