Yantai: Building China's Demonstration City for Ocean Ranching

YANTAI, China, Aug. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In China's coastal areas, there has been a saying that "the best Chinese ocean ranches are in Shandong, while the best Shandong ocean ranches are in Yantai". Yantai City, located on the coast of Bohai Sea in Shandong Province, is vigorously accelerating its building of ocean ranches, and continuously promoting the transformation and upgrading of ocean ranching. According to the International Ocean Information Center, up to now, Yantai has 30 ocean ranches at or above provincial level, of which 14 are at the national level, accounting for one eighth of the total number in China; with its ocean ranches covering a total area of over 700 km2, the city boasts an industrial chain of ocean ranching with an annual output value of over CNY 50 billion.

Yantai has a sea area of 26,000 km2, nearly one tenth of which is suitable for the construction of high-quality ocean ranches. In the 1970s and 1980s, Yantai, as one of the first pilot areas in China, carried out experiments on artificial reefs and conducted activities of stock enhancement and releasing of Chinese prawns, becoming one of the cities in China that launched the construction of ocean ranches and the city with the largest number of national-level ocean ranches.

In recent years, Yantai has enhanced its level of technological innovation and integrated application of ocean ranching, organized nearly 100 enterprises and scientific research institutions to establish the Yantai Strategic Alliance for Technological Innovation of Ocean Ranching Industry, and set up an investment fund totaling CNY 1 billion for the development of marine industry to help extend the industrial chain of ocean ranching. The fund is mainly used in ocean ranching, marine engineering equipment, marine science and technology, seafood farming, fresh product processing, etc. At the same time, they have been integrating ranch data resources, improving the online monitoring of ocean ecological environment, ocean ranch observation and the monitoring network of marine economic operation, and building a big data platform for comprehensive ocean management, so to achieve the "visual, measurable, controllable and early-warning" management of ocean ranches.

In May last year, the "Changjing No.1" deep ocean intelligent net cage was put into operation in Changdao, Yantai. "Changjing No.1" is the first domestic deep-water sit-on-bottom intelligent net cage, which is researched and developed by Yantai CIMC Raffles. It is 66m long, 66m wide, with an upper ring height of 34m and an effective breeding water body of 64,000 m3, equivalent to 100 ordinary net cages. The net cage is equipped with automatic equipment for baiting, underwater monitoring and net cleaning, as well as a sewage treatment system, a desalination system and a solar power generation system. It is the world's first deep-water sit-on-bottom aquaculture net cage and the first large cage to achieve automatic net-lifting function.

In July of this year, "Genghai No.1", China's first large-scale complex platform of intelligent ocean ranching, was put into operation in Yantai. It has a total diameter of 80m and a total breeding volume of 30,897 m3, equivalent to the water volume of 14 swimming pools of international standard, and is composed of three identical and rotating sub-cages, like three petals blooming at sea. "Genghai No. 1" has made multiple innovations in terms of the movable sit-on-bottom structure, the new material netting, the intelligent equipment, etc., and is expected to produce 150,000 kg of fishes and receive 50,000 tourists annually.

Relying on its ocean ranching platforms, Yantai has begun to explore the building of a new model of recreational fishery development that combines "ocean ranching + marine engineering equipment + tourism" and "leisure sea fishing + yachting", to promote the deep integration of fishery with tourism and sports industry. Last year, Yantai achieved an output value of CNY 5.1 billion in its recreational fishery industry, with a year-on-year increase of 13.5%.

Zhang Shuping, Secretary of Yantai Municipal Party Committee, said that the city would continue to leverage its building of ocean ranches as the main driver for the transformation and upgrading of marine fishery, and adhere to the development path of scalable, engineering, intelligent and green ocean ranches, in accordance with the principle of "ecology first, land and sea integration, and sustainable use".

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Caption: "Changjing No.1" is sitting firmly in the sea area of Daqin Island, Yantai 

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Caption: "Genghai No.1" complex of ocean ranching