Chinese offshore salmon farm makes first commercial harvest
The farm can be directly managed from land 100 nautical miles away.
A Chinese offshore Atlantic salmon farm has harvested 15,000 fish from its site off the coast of Qingdao, on the country's northeast coast, Xinhua news agency reports.
Shenlan 1 is growing a total of 100,000 Atlantic salmon and the harvest marks the first for a Chinese deep-sea salmon farm, according to government official Guo Peng.
The farm was jointly launched by Shandong Marine Group, Wanzefeng Group, and Qingdao Ocean Investment Group.
Shenlan 1 is constantly being renovated and upgraded, Tang Qingkai, who is in charge of the promotion platform, told Xinhua.
The farm can be directly managed from land 100 nautical miles away thanks to a newly added biomass monitoring system, optimized breeding monitoring system and remote information transmission system, according to Tang.
He added the biomass monitoring system enables real-time monitoring of fish's living conditions, feeding conditions, and fish's shape and size, so staff members can accurately adjust feeding at any time according to information provided.
The experiment zone is located in a zone of deep cold water in the Yellow Sea, with the temperature remaining under 12 degrees Celsius all year round, which is suitable for the growth of salmon and other high value-added coldwater fish.
With China's spending power growing, the market demand for salmon has been gradually increasing, Zhu Danpeng, a veteran food industry observer told the Global Times, adding that the nation's dependence on imported salmon will continue to lessen as domestic farming increases.
Source: IntraFish
