More humane and less wasteful fish harvesting Many of us like | Tech for Good

More humane and less wasteful fish harvesting

Many of us like fish. Even more like when it's fresh and tasty. Yet, how often do we consider how this tasty baked or fried fish on our dining table was harvested?

Fish harvesting in general does not care about the fish's comfort. In most cases the fish are dumped out of the net, roughly sorted, and then thrown on ice to flap around and eventually suffocate minutes or hours later.

This isn't just cruel, but also results in the fish’s body degrading faster due to the stress, bacteria in wounds and blood, and lactic acid in the muscles.

There is a better way, a traditional Japanese method called ike-jime. Ike-jime involves piercing the brain with a sharp spike to send the fish to fish heaven. Then quickly exsanguinating it, and after that destroying the spinal cord.

Doing it this way is not only the most humane. It also prevents stress, suffering, and bacteria from spreading through the body. But you have to do it precisely and within a couple of minutes after catching a fish, so it doesn’t scale.

That is, unless you automate it, which is what Shinkei Systems has done. The team, led by founder Saif Khawaja, has created a device making ike-jime on fresh-caught fish. It works at a rate of one every 10-15 seconds.

The machine is about the size of a big refrigerator. It includes a hopper for incoming fish, an operational area, and output where it can go into an ice bath. A computer vision system identifies the species and shape of the fish it is holding. Then it locates the brain and other important parts. And goes through the ike-jime motions, dispatching the fish quickly and reliably.

It isn’t just for the fish’s sake that Shinkei is going through all this. Kitchens pay a premium for fish processed via ike-jime since it tastes better and lasts longer.

Shinkei raised $1.3 million in a pre-seed round filed in January. The team is now in the sales process. They meet more large-scale distributors and public companies to put the machine in people’s hands.