Deep-sea farming set to meet China’s growing appetite for salmon

BEIJING: China’s first deep-sea fish farming facility, Shenlan 1, will be put into use this month for salmon cultivation in the Yellow Sea, which will enable the country to achieve large-scale breeding of fish in the warm open seas.

The submersible aquaculture facility can dive to a depth of 50m and is able to rise or descend according to ambient water temperature, said Chen Qing, head of Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Co, the facility’s maker.

“It’s the first such underwater aquaculture facility in the world,” Chen said on Friday, adding that Shenlan 1 adopts some military submarine technology.

Wang Yu, chief designer of the Shenlan 1 project, said the success of the project will make China the first country to breed salmon on a large scale in open, warm water.

He said the coastal waters of China are warm and not suitable for breeding of coldwater fish, but there is a mass of cold water roughly 500 billion cubic metres in the middle and bottom area of the Yellow Sea.

“The huge (area of ) water, with good quality, is suitable for the cultivation of cold-water fish, especially salmon.

“But it’s far from the coast and deep, so exploitation has remained a dream for fish farmers,” Wang said.

In recent years, China has had a fast-growing appetite for fresh salmon.

Research results issued last year by Netherlands-based Rabobank showed that China consumed 100,000 metric tons of salmon in 2016, with an expected growth rate of 25% the following year.

Wang Ning, general manager of Wanzefeng Fishery Co, an enterprise in Rizhao, Shandong province, that plans to use the facility to breed salmon, said China currently imports most of its salmon to satisfy the demand. — China Daily/Asia News Network