"This was originally a decommissioned offshore drilling platform, and we will spend about half a year in Qingdao to transform it into a central management platform for deep-sea aquaculture, and then pull it to the cold water mass area of the Yellow Sea to carry out salmon farming in the deep-sea 120 nautical miles away."
On October 16th, the main media of the central government in Luhe Province and city "Advancing into Deep Blue" theme interview group walked into Shandong Yuanhai Green Aquaculture Co., Ltd. located in Qingdao's West Coast New Area. The sea breeze and the sound of the waves at the wharf, Tang Qingkai, executive deputy general manager of the company, led everyone to board the central management platform of the far-reaching sea aquaculture equipment that is being transformed. After the completion of the transformation of the platform, it will be placed in the National Far-Reaching Sea Green Aquaculture Pilot Zone located in the Cold Water Group of the Yellow Sea, providing feed storage and energy supply for the breeding of salmon and other high-value fish in the test area.
According to reports, the National Far-reaching Sea Green Aquaculture Pilot Zone, located in the Yellow Sea Cold Water Group Area, built by Shandong Far-reaching Sea Green Aquaculture Co., Ltd., is the country's first national-level far-reaching sea green aquaculture pilot area approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the project has been included in the national "Blue Granary Science and Technology Innovation", Shandong Province's "14th Five-Year Plan" plan and Shandong Province's key research and development plan. The test is divided into two areas, A and B, with a total area of 553.6 square kilometers, and the bottom sea temperature is maintained below 12 °C all year round, which is suitable for the growth of salmon such as salmon trout.
"Salmon can only live in the water temperature below 20 ° C in the sea, China's subtropical warm sea areas could not have been cultivated, but the existence of this special hydrological phenomenon of the Yellow Sea cold water mass, coupled with the promotion of China's far-reaching sea aquaculture equipment technology and industry, makes China's salmon farming from impossible to possible." Tang Qingkai said.
After 6 years of overcoming difficulties, from pe experimental cages to the world's largest full-submersible deep-sea aquaculture equipment "Deep Blue No. 1", the project team of the National Far-reaching Sea Green Aquaculture Pilot Zone has overcome the technical research of the yellow sea cold water group salmon culture in key links such as seedling breeding, deep sea aquaculture, equipment and functional management, promoted the innovation and industrial development of the green culture technology of salmon trout in the yellow sea cold water group, and filled a number of marine science and technology gaps at home and abroad.
In June 2021, the first batch of salmon in the pilot area achieved a bumper harvest, marking the success of China's first large-scale breeding of high-value fish, breaking the situation that salmon depends on imports, and achieving a breakthrough of "zero" domestic seawater salmon farming.
It is estimated that by 2025, the total investment of the National Far-reaching Sea Green Aquaculture Pilot Zone Project will reach 5 billion yuan, and a central platform for comprehensive aquaculture management, 12 large-scale deep-water cages will be built, the aquaculture water body will reach 1.7 million m³, and 8 million finished salmon trout fish can be produced, with an annual output of 40,000 tons, driving nearly 10,000 jobs and creating a 10 billion-level far-reaching marine industrial cluster.
(Reporting by Xiao Fang and Zhang Wenting, client reporters of Dazhong Daily)