Promoting the building of an ocean community of shared future

Editor's note: Wang Hong is a senior engineer at Zhanjiang Bay Laboratory. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Aquatic products provide high-quality animal protein and are a crucial food source for humans. After more than 30 years of swift development, China's fishery industry produces aquatic products of some 71.16 million tonnes in 2023, making China the world's largest producer of aquatic products. 

However, as the fishery industry booms, inland lakes, ponds and coastal areas in China are becoming increasingly saturated, while marine fishing resources are nearly depleted. With growing environmental and resource pressures, expanding the space for fishery production and developing the marine ranching industry play increasingly vital roles in ensuring national food security and promoting human well-being.

In 2017, China completed the world's first large-scale deep-sea aquaculture platform, Norway's "Ocean Farm 1," expanding marine aquaculture to a depth of 300 meters. The platform caused a global sensation upon its debut. 

The development concept of Norwegian fisheries also drew the attention from the Chinese government. 

In 2019, 10 ministries jointly issued the "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Green Development of the Aquaculture Industry" document, the first to advocate support for the development of green deep-sea aquaculture and encouraged the building of large-scale intelligent deep-sea aquaculture platforms.

In June 2023, eight ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Deep-sea Aquaculture," proposing the key task of expediting the development of deep-sea aquaculture across the entire industry chain with a focus on the key fields and critical links in the development of deep-sea aquaculture. 

In October 2023, the State Council issued the white paper "Development of China's Distant-Water Fisheries," comprehensively introducing China's development concepts, principles, positions, policy propositions and accomplishments in distant-water fisheries.

Although China started developing deep-sea aquaculture late, it has come from behind and made breakthroughs in technological innovations of various types of equipment for deep-sea aquaculture. 

Among them, the series of full-spectrum deep-sea aquaculture platforms developed by the Zhanjiang Bay Laboratory in Guangdong Province epitomize these advancements.

For the 50- to 60-meter-deep cold water masses of the Yellow Sea in Shandong, the semi-submersible bottom-sitting typhoon-resistant aquaculture platform "Deep Blue No. 2" was engineered, realizing the dream of Chinese people to farm cold-water salmon in domestic waters. 

Targeting the 50- to 200-meter-deep waters of the South China Sea, the suspended depth-fixed fully submerged high typhoon-resistant aquaculture platform "Haita No. 1" was developed. It can easily withstand typhoons of magnitude 17 or higher in a fully submerged state. 

For China's vast sea, with unrestricted depths, an aquaculture workboat featuring a floating dynamic positioning cage system was designed, transforming deep-sea aquaculture into an impromptu journey. 

As of 2024, China has completed and is constructing more than 70 large-scale deep-sea aquaculture platforms, injecting new momentum into the development of deep-sea aquaculture.

Accelerating the building of modern marine ranches, actively driving forward the construction of a community of shared future for the oceans, joining hands to address marine environmental pollution, collaboratively advancing the development of the blue economy, facilitating the integration of marine cultures and collectively enhancing marine well-being all represent "solutions of Chinese wisdom" presented by China for international fisheries governance in the new era, showcasing its commitment as a major power. 

Surely, these solutions will vigorously promote the advancement and progress of the world fishery industry and benefit the people of all countries.