Highlights:

• The literature reports many challenges associated with the implementation of IoT in aquaculture.

• To overcome challenges that may arise during the design of IoT systems in aquaculture, we looked for potential solutions in the literature.

• The IoT system design should be tailored to the specific characteristics of the aquaculture farm, such as its availability of internet/electricity and type of species.

Abstract:

Aquaculture produces nearly half of the seafood consumed by the ever-growing world population. There have been attempts to adopt novel technologies into the industry to increase profitability, particularly the Internet of Things (IoT). In aquaculture, it is therefore important to evaluate and address the challenges related to IoT. The purpose of this review is to categorize the challenges associated with implementing IoT systems in aquaculture according to the literature. This work reviewed prototyped IoT systems reported in the literature in the last five years. Moreover, some potential solutions to the reported challenges were discussed with the help of literature that can be used by researchers in the future. Among IoT systems used in aquaculture, some challenges are common, while others are specific to particular species or farms. Due to direct contact with water, maintenance of sensor probes is a common challenge. The literature addressed this problem through different designs that led to self-cleaning mechanisms. There were three categories of specific challenges: infrastructure-related, data-related, and perception-related. Infrastructural challenges primarily relate to electricity availability and internet connectivity. For electricity, energy harvesting technologies are suggested, and for internet connectivity, satellite internet or offline systems are suggested. The data related category covers challenges related to data loss due to device or network errors. Studies have shown that incorporating soft methods can help resolve most of these issues. Perception-related challenges examine barriers that prevent aquaculture farmers from implementing IoT systems. As one potential remedy for this barrier, literature suggests policy makers intervene in promoting the benefits of IoT systems and providing incentives.