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Deep-sea aquaculture adds vitality to Shandong's rural vitalization

(chinadaily.com.cn) | 2023-05-15

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Conson No 1, the world's first 100,000-metric-ton smart fish farming ship, enters service in Qingdao, Shandong province in last May. [Photo for China Daily]

Shandong province recently issued its opinions on the implementation of key tasks for rural vitalization to develop modern equipment for land-based and deep-sea aquaculture as well as the construction of Conson No 2, a large-scale smart fish-farming ship featuring information technology, shipbuilding and artificial aquaculture.

It is an upgraded version of Conson No 1, the world's first 100,000-metric-ton fish farming vessel, which marks a milestone in the development of deep-sea aquaculture in China. Presently, the construction contracts for Conson No 2-1 and Conson No 2-2 have been signed and the two vessels are expected to be delivered in the second half of 2024. Conson No 2-3 will also be launched soon.

Chinese solutions for deep-sea aquaculture 

Conson No 2-1 and Conson No 2-2 have similar specification such as length, width, carrying capacity and fish farms to Conson No 1. The Conson No 2 series will mainly breed amberjacks and integrate various systems such as replacement of water, intelligent feeding, water quality regulation, noise reduction and smart control. Conson No 2 will have a super fishery and processing plant onboard that allows it to handle fish fingerlings, feeding and breeding, transport, processing and harvesting.

Measuring 249.9 meters in length and having a displacement of 130,000 tons, Conson No 2 is designed to produce 3,700 tons of high-quality fish per year. Dubbed the "offshore granary", it has 15 breeding cabins with approximately 3 million amberjacks living inside. Its hull is equipped with 2,108 sensors, which can feed back real-time information on water, oxygen and light in the cabin to the monitoring room.

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China's first deep-sea fish farm, Shenlan 1. [Photo by Li Ziheng/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Ensuring food security

Deep-sea aquaculture can not only strengthen traditional marine industries, but also extend the industrial chain, drive breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies of marine equipment manufacturing and improve the core competitiveness of the marine equipment industry.

Developing deep-sea aquaculture can consolidate China's position as a world fishery power, make it a strong marine equipment manufacturing country, alleviate the problem of scarce resources for aquaculture on land and in nearshore areas and ensure national food security.

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Atlantic salmon harvested from China's first deep-sea fish farm, Shenlan 1 [Photo by Yu Fangping/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Full industrial chain

In recent years, Qingdao has developed aquaculture vessels and issued 15 policies to support the high-quality development of the marine economy and the construction of aquatic farming equipment. Qingdao is ramping up efforts to promote the transition of marine aquaculture areas from coastal to deep sea waters.

Qingdao's Shenlan 1 fish farm is located in waters 222 kilometers off the city. Recently, the vessel harvested cold-water Atlantic salmon that it cultivated, proving the feasibility of full-cycle breeding of deep-sea salmon in China.

Shenlan 1 is a deep-sea submersible equipment that can submerge or float depending on weather changes. It has a breeding water volume of about 50,000 cubic meters and an annual designed production of 1,500 tons of fish, and can farm 300,000 salmon at the same time.