Step into the world of innovation and fish welfare with Máirín-Rua, the visionary winner of our Early Career Innovators Competition. Get ready to be inspired by her passion, creativity, and dedication to advancing aquaculture.
Máirín-Rua is an exciting fish vet, currently working with Mowi on the west coast of Scotland, and is the YAS Early Career Innovator Competition winner.
An art and music lover from the “best city in Ireland” - Cork; Máirín-Rua enjoys painting, singing and playing the harp. She likes her creative writing group, canicross with her two dogs, triathlon and long-distance running (I actually first met her by chance, running down the side of a mountain near Fort William in an event we were both doing! - Andrew). On top of all this (and her day job), she is also the President of the Fish Vet Society. We don’t know how she gets it all done!
Following her introduction to the industry through the European Aquaculture Society's “adopt a student program”, she has thrived in a hands-on practical environment. “I want to be out on the farm 4 days a week - that's where I can make the most impact. It's where I can learn from the guys onsite about their specific environment, but also where I teach them about ways to improve our practices or solve problems with them.”
Talking to Máirín-Rua you instantly understand her passion is animal welfare - it is impossible to miss. It is fitting then that her ambitious entry pushes us to think about the next possible leaps in improving the welfare of farmed fish.
Understanding fish welfare is more than understanding illness. Máirín-Rua posits the solution to thinking more holistically about this challenge lies in AI and a fishy neural network tool. Tracking markers like swimming behaviour and examining them through several lenses - Littlewood et al’s 5 Domains - and combining the outputs to provide an evolving welfare assessment. Máirín-Rua proposes a welfare tool that learns as it receives more data and helps farmers and vets understand their salmon more comprehensively. A tool that combines continuous environmental data with footage from inside pens. In short a tool that thinks like a fish.
Thinking creatively is something that Máirín-Rua believes is a requirement of being a fish vet; where established frameworks and structures have yet to be firmly established and innovations are being adopted so rapidly. She thinks her love of art and music promotes this, saying:
“A balance between art and science is important to me. I think it influences creative problem solving and helps you see things differently”.
When asked about why she joined YAS, Máirín-Rua explains “ I am a big believer in community and its ability to empower and support people; especially in such a competitive industry it is important to support one another”. We couldn't have said it better ourselves!
Join us in congratulating Máirín-Rua on her achievements and wishing her continued success on her aquaculture journey! Stay tuned for more inspiring stories from our talented aquaculture community.
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