Informatics as Future for Fish Genetic Resources Management

Abstract

Informatics is the application of data science to extract and communicate actionable knowledge in the context of
a specialised domain. Informatics will play an increasingly important role in management of genetic resources for
aquaculture as the industry pursues automation and optimisation of processes in pursuit of intensifi cation. This will
likely parallel the adoption of industrial control systems in technology-oriented “smart farms”, which will drive
instrumentation of farming systems. Aquaculture has historically under-invested in genetic resource management
and all aspects of information technology, including informatics, but both have potential to generate substantial
benefi ts. Data capture and computational resources for informatics are no longer limiting. They are cheap, easy
to obtain and manage, due to advances in microelectronics, software virtualisation and cloud computing. Human
resources are now the main bottleneck in application of informatics in aquatic genetic resources management.
There is a need for the aquaculture sector to invest in developing its own professional capacity in informatics,
as it is unlikely to be able to recruit personnel from more industrialised, higher-paying sectors