SHANDONG, May21(ABC): In a world first, China delivered a 100,000-tonne smart aquaculture vessel on Friday in Qingdao City, east China’s Shandong Province.
The ship, named Guoxin-1, is the realization of an innovative mobile fish farming model regarded as a technological breakthrough for China’s deep-sea aquaculture industry.
The fish farm vessel is 249.9 meters long, with a deadweight of 100,000 tonnes and a displacement of 130,000 tonnes, large enough to survive typhoons.
The cabin has 15 rooms, each larger than two standard swimming pools.
According to CMG, the ship can handle 3,700 tonnes of fish annually, including yellow croakers, groupers and Atlantic salmons.
The key technology is the non-stop water exchange between the cabin and the sea that makes the water environment on the ship enclosed and controllable, said Dong Shaoguang, deputy general manager of the ship’s state-owned funder, Qingdao Conson Development Group.
Dong told the media that the Guoxin-1’s breeding density is three to five times higher than traditional cages, and the aquaculture cycle can be up to a quarter shorter.
The ship will farm in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea, with the first batch of yellow croakers raised expected to be on the market by the fall of 2022.
The Guoxin-2 and Guoxin-3 ships of the same model are due for delivery by March 2024. The construction of an improved version, the Guoxin-4, is planned to begin in late 2023.