Manual filleting of fish can be a time-consuming task. Due to higher salaries in Nordic countries, processing of fish caught there is often carried out in places like Asia, Eastern Europe and Russia where labor costs are lower, before the fish is returned to Scandinavia for sale. The APRICOT (Automated Pinbone Removal In Cod and WhiTefish) project set out in January, 2012 to find an automated solution that would keep fish processing local and it has now developed a machine that achieves just that.
Unlike farmed salmon, which are similar in size and shape and therefore suitable for automated machine filleting, the variability of wild-caught white fish such as cod has kept filleting of these fish a manual affair. As well as the high cost, manual filleting also results in three to seven percent of the most valuable part of the fish being cut away unnecessarily.
The APRICOT project has now developed a new robot that automates the process by using x-ray technology to locate the pin-bones in the fish and then quickly and precisely trim them away using water-jets. A prototype filleting machine has been built and is ready for testing. If it works as its developers hope, it could be filleting fish by next year.
Not only does the machine automate the time-consuming filleting process and guarantee boneless fillets, it also results in much less waste than manual filleting. This is according to Kristjan Halvardsson from Marel, an Icelandic company that worked with Sintef, Faroe Origin and Norway Seafoods on the APRICOT project, which was run by Nordic Innovation.
Rather than taking away jobs from humans, Norway Seafoods CEO Thomas Farstad says the technology actually creates new knowledge-based jobs while keeping at least some fish processing jobs in Scandinavia. Such jobs were under serious threat, with the number of Norwegian whitefish processing plants dropping from 100 to 10 over the last 40 years. This is despite Norway being the world's second largest exporter of fish.
The following video produced by Nordic Innovation details the benefits of the new processing machine.
Source: Sintef, Nordic Innovation
In all probability one machine will do the work of 5 humans (machines can work 24 hours and don't take holidays, sick leave or coffee breaks) and while jobs in distant countries will be lost, it can actually result in some more jobs back in Norway - doing the remaining processing functions.
Automation of this kind has dramatic implications for jobs everywhere so as a society we need to plan how to cope with changes like this across many industries - both industrial and services.
Oh, and I think the fish might actually taste better for its lack of 'foreign travel'!
One drawback, as a society, we'll have to stop believing in the everlasting gospel of "growth" and the fairy tale that the economy magically provides just the right number of jobs for all seeking employment. We are being so brainwashed with that crap 24/7.
This is a perfect example for jobless growth: The manufacturer being able to process product with fewer and fewer people. Eventually, people as lucky as me (aka having a nice job) will have to understand that having a job is a privilege, a good bit of it is just luck, and there's got to be a way to enable people with less luck to have a decent life.
Not saying that I know how to do this, but we really need to starting looking at that very problem, or pitchforks will come out once again.