Nation reels in leading role via floating fish farm

Rising tide of marine businesses includes aquaculture, pharmacology

The world's first 100,000-metric-ton, smart fish-farming ship was delivered on May 20 in Qingdao, Shandong province, marking the latest innovation for China's aquaculture technology.

The ship, Conson No 1, is expected to help the nation's deep-sea aquaculture take a leading role in the industry by providing a new prototype, experts said.

The 249.9-meter-long mobile fish farm, with a dead weight of 100,000 tons and displacing 130,000 tons, has 15 tanks, each larger than two standard swimming pools. It can handle 3,700 tons of fish annually, including yellow croaker, grouper and Atlantic salmon.

The ship's smart technology can control temperature and salinity in the pools where the fish are growing. It features a total of 2,108 sensors to monitor water, oxygen, light, feeding and the growth of fish in real-time.

"Conson No 1 has made China's vision of deep-sea aquaculture into a reality, and will not only drive the nation's development of the aquaculture industry but also promote the upgrading of related equipment, technologies and business models," said Mai Kangsen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at Ocean University of China.