Catching Details: How Vision Systems Help Seafood Processors See More

Seafood quality is a different beast — because when you harvest wild catch, you never know what’s coming up in the net. Sometimes it’s fish or clams… and sometimes it’s a barnacle-covered telephone.
In this episode of Quality Lines, Winston sits down with John Garland, Director of Research & Development for Land-Based Operations at Clearwater Seafoods. John shares how 30 years of experience, spanning lobster biology, quality engineering, and implementation of inline machine vision, helped Clearwater transform wild variability into consistent, world-class quality.

🔍 What You’ll Learn:
• What “quality” really means in seafood (hint: it shouldn’t smell “fishy”)
• Why manual inspection can’t keep up with today’s processing needs
• How Clearwater uses multispectral IR and X-ray systems to detect molt stage, shell fragments, wrong species, and foreign material
• The data advantage of per-animal inspection and what it unlocks for harvest + storage decisions

If you work in food quality, protein processing, or automation — this one’s packed with practical insights from the sea to the line.
Subscribe for more episodes on the innovations shaping food quality control.

👤 Our Guest
John Garland
Director of Research & Development, Land-Based Operations
Clearwater Seafoods

John comes from a commercial fishing family and started fishing commercially with his father during his summer break in high school. However, he decided to take his career path to a more technical level.

He has a bachelor’s degree in marine biology and a PhD in crustacean physiology, having obtained his PhD while working full-time at Clearwater. He’s been with Clearwater for 30 years, starting as a lobster biologist at one of their long-term live lobster storage facilities.

Through his research on non-invasive quality detection systems for seafood, he transitioned to a more engineering-oriented role, integrating custom and third-party machine vision systems into various seafood processing lines within Clearwater’s land-based facilities.

John is an avid water sports enthusiast who enjoys kitesurfing and wing foiling year-round in his home province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

🔗 Resources & Links
SiftAI® FM - Foreign Material Detection for Raw and Processed Food Production
https://www.kpmanalytics.com/products...
App Note: Sorting and Grading for Meat
https://www.kpmanalytics.com/resource...
KPM Analytics Website: https://www.kpmanalytics.com
KPM Vision Inspection Solutions: https://www.kpmanalytics.com/process-...

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👉 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel:    / @kpmanalytics  

🎙️ Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5kyCTGn...

About Clearwater Seafoods
Founded in 1976 as a small lobster retailer in Nova Scotia, Clearwater Seafoods has grown into one of North America’s largest vertically integrated seafood companies, known worldwide for its premium quality, food safety, and sustainable practices. Through continuous investment in science, technology, and community partnerships, the company has become a leader in sustainable seafood production. In 2021, Clearwater was acquired by a partnership between Premium Brands and the Mi’kmaq Coalition, making it proudly Indigenous-owned and committed to supporting sustainable seafood for future generations.

Clearwater Website: https://www.clearwater.ca/en/
Clearwater YouTube Channel:    / @clearwaterltd