Aquabyte’s new combined fish health and feeding camera with sonar and 360° video – Hydra 360

Aquabyte, a leading provider of AI-driven aquaculture solutions, has newly launched a unique camera technology that combines feeding, health monitoring, biomass estimation, and automated sea lice counting in a single compact unit. The camera’s first public showing took place at HavExpo 2026 on Tuesday, May 5.

With Hydra 360, the name of our new camera solution, we are taking a significant step into AI-assisted feeding. Combined with our feeding product, which we launched at Aqua Nor 2025, Hydra 360 will be able to replace all types of cameras currently used in aquaculture – including feeding cameras – and cover all data collection needs in both today’s and tomorrow’s fish farming, says Thomas Fekete Rønningen, CCO at Aquabyte.

With built-in sonar and a total of seven integrated camera lenses, Hydra 360 will, for the first time, provide farmers with full 360-degree insight. The cameras cover the area around the unit, while the sonar delivers a comprehensive overview of the entire fish population in the pen.

The sonar in Hydra 360 provides a unique overview of the pen. It shows where the fish are located and feeding, making it easy to position the camera correctly. In conditions with turbidity and poor visibility, the sonar delivers critical information that is not available with conventional camera technology alone. Simply put, Hydra 360 provides a full 360-degree field of view – even in conditions where other so-called all-in-one camera solutions struggle, says Thomas Fekete Rønningen.

Camera-based technology plays an increasingly important role in aquaculture. As new solutions are deployed at fish farming sites, pens are becoming filled with more and more equipment. This creates challenges related to both operational efficiency and fish health. With Hydra 360, multiple devices in the pen can be replaced by a single, compact unit. The Hydra 360 delivers video resolution of up to 80 megapixels, providing extremely high image quality with exceptional detail. At the same time, we have developed a very efficient way to transfer high-quality video to the customer without burdening existing network infrastructure at the site.

Our goal with Hydra 360 is to provide farmers with a world class feeding camera, delivering better insights than ever before. We also want to simplify operations by reducing the amount of equipment needed in the pen and on the barge. We believe we have achieved this with our new combined feeding camera, sonar, fish health camera, and environmental sensors, says Darryl Weatherspoon, CTO at Aquab.