An Agent-Based Model To Simulate Pathogen Transmission Between Aquaculture Sites In The Romsdalsfjord

Fish farming is an important industry along the Norwegian west coast. This industry provides labor opportunities and financial income in areas that are often thinly populated. Fish are subject to diseases carried by pathogens. The value of the fish that are lost due to disease is worrisome, and emergent diseases continue to pose a severe challenge to the aquaculture industry. We have built an agent-based model to simulate the emergence of a hypothetical fish pathogen in an aquaculture facility in the Romsdalsfjord to observe how this pathogen possibly spreads to multiple facilities within the fjord. This model enables us to observe how key parameters such as current speed, current direction, pathogen life span, contagiousness and fish density affect the disease dynamics. The model is implemented in NetLogo, and we have included three aquafarms at the Romsdalsfjord in the experiment.