Milestone for China’s first open ocean offshore fish farm.
After ten years in the making, Bandao reports that important work started at the 35m deep “Deep Blue 1” on June 21 at 4 a.m.
“This event is the first large-scale fish harvest since the implementation of the pilot area project, and also marks that the first large-scale breeding of high-value fish in China has been a success,” said local party secretary Zhao Yingmin.
30 meters below the surface of the water, more than 150,000 salmon swim in the cage, which can be lifted up from the cold water from the Yellow Sea.
The project, a collaboration between the company Rizhao Wanzefeng Fishery and China Ocean University, started in 2015.
More photos of the harvest are available on this link.
“Today we collected more than 3,000 fish, with a survival rate of 80 per-cent, the average weight of more than four kg, quality reached the EU export standards,” said Rizhao Wanzefeng Fishery CEO Gu Weihuan.
The aim is to get salmon out to Chinese homes in 12 hours.
“A change in China’s salmon dependence on imports, moving four or five days of time span, domestic far-reaching sea salmon to maximize the guarantee of fresh,” said Yuhuan.
300,000 salmon a year are expected to be harvested each year in “Deep Blue One”. Its larger successor “Deep Blue 2” has plans to have its main structure completed by the end of this year to hold up to 420,000 salmon.
