Salmon farmer Scottish Sea Farms (SSF) has been trialing a new underwater device for early detection of algal blooms in one of its sites in the Shetland Islands for over a year, the first UK farmer to do so, it said.

The Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB), described by the farmer as a "virtual taxonomist", uses lasers and cameras to detect microscopic single-celled phytoplankton in the water at a farm site.

Certain species of phytoplankton reproduce to create large blooms with toxic concentrations of algae. When occurring within salmon farming areas, these blooms can wipe out entire crops of fish.

However, the IFCB, developed by the Scottish Association for Marine Science and UHI Shetland, uploads data from the farm waters to make early detection of blooms -- and mitigation measures -- possible.

According to SSF, the system uses artificial intelligence to identify different species of phytoplankton, giving near-instant results every 20 minutes to let farmers know which types of algae are prevalent in the waters around their site.

"It is notoriously difficult to predict when an algal bloom will occur, given the various environmental factors involved in its formation," said SAMS project leader Keith Davidson. "The more warning we can give fish and shellfish farmers, the better the chance they have of mitigating the impact."

"It's already showing us rapid changes over the course of a day that we've never seen before. Traditional sampling methods use fixative to preserve the sample for analysis but that can damage the cell. Being able to see live samples shows us the structure of the cell as it's meant to be."