POPULARIZING AQUACULTURE WITH VIRTUAL REALITY: A NORWEGIAN EXAMPLE  

The knowledge of aquaculture industry among general public is rather limited, which is unfortunate given the importance of the industry, especially in Norway, and might often lead to misconceptions and prejudices. Therefore, there is a need for new approaches to disseminate knowledge about aquaculture and get people, especially youth, interested in the industry in order to secure future growth. This has motivated the development of an interactive educational aquaculture simulator in Virtual Reality with Oculus Rift headset. The simulator has gaming elements and allows the user to visit a virtual salmon fish-farm, dive into a fish cage to swim among the salmon, feed the salmon or check out the anchoring of the cage. The simulator recreates a local salmon farm in Frøya, Norway (Måsøval Fiskeoppdrett AS). To our knowledge, this simulator is currently the only one of its kind.

The simulator has been successfully evaluated at various venues with both professionals and general public (Figure 1). According to the aquaculture industry representatives (Måsøval Fiskeoppdrett), the simulator is an efficient tool to present daily operation at their farm to visitors and customers and is capable of promoting aquaculture to a wider audience. The simulator has also significant potential for professional education, as follows from evaluation at a local high-school with aquaculture study program. In the longer term, Måsøval Fiskeoppdrett has a vision to develop an extended version of the stimulator at the local "Blått Competence Center" at Frøya, where the visitors could follow the salmon from its birth to harvest in a 30-40 minutes long sequence as well as learn the details of farming practices such as well-boat operation and delousing. Using this technology, the salmon farming industry can reach a wider audience and provide an interactive and realistic learning environment.