Wang Yi: Spearhead of China’s Marine Agriculture
The fish fry production system of the marine ranch is composed of a bio-bait production system and incubation system, which ensures the healthy growth of young fish. Healthy fish fry are then placed into the cultivation pool that simulates the natural marine eco-environment through sound-wave domestication, a process usually lasting three to five months.
After the young fish are able to respond completely to sound control information, they are moved to the cultivation sector of the marine ranch. There, a sea-based sound-control feeding machine automatically sends out acoustic signals and dispenses feed at timed intervals. The sound induces the fish fry to forage for food. Meanwhile, a visual transmission system monitors the whole growth process of such raised marine life, helping the management spot problems in time and resolve them, thereby improving production efficiency and ensuring safe production. This satellite-based system offers a solution for remote information transmission in large-scale marine ranches, since it is able to make timely and accurate transmission of real-time dynamic imagery of cultivated aqua life over long distances and in all environmental and weather conditions.
Swelling Local Purses
For his mariculture dreams, Wang Yi has not only considered technical issues, but also taken into account the goal of increasing local people’s incomes and driving the local economy by developing marine industry. This should definitely help create a passion for a marine economy.
To enable more local people to have a share in this rewarding project, Wang Yi suggests development of two types of marine ranches. One is a small-scale marine ranch based in individual fishing villages, relying on local natural conditions of beaches, coves and islets. Within this mode, a fishing cooperative could be established with villagers as members, who jointly participate in management, production and profit distribution. The second type is a bigger farm that takes advantage of large bays and coasts to develop modern fishing operations, integrating urban and rural areas. This type features mass production, high efficiency and consequently higher returns. Under this type, upstream and downstream products of the fishery industry could also be developed, building a range of industries related to marine ranching.
As in industrial and agricultural projects on land, the proper function of a marine ranch depends on a variety of facilities. Thus a vast amount of construction material and infrastructure involving transportation, communication, production and management are needed, creating demands for upstream industries. The downstream sectors – marine food, biopharmacy, biofertilizer and new bioenergy – not only improve people’s dietary structure and enrich food culture, but bring enormous economic and social benefits. For instance, algae has become a new source of renewable energy. Such industrial development also serves as a positive response to the country’s strategy for transforming its mode of economic development, and opens new fields of growth.
“A large-scale marine ranch, featuring multiple advantages like diversified functions, high yields, high returns and more job opportunities, will benefit more people, and thus quicken their pace towards attaining better-off lives,” Wang Yi said, while talking about the prospects of his marine ranching enterprise.
Spearheading Marine Agriculture
The sea is a treasure house and also one of the final frontiers for human survival and development. Today, human society is developing a sea world with a brand-new approach, with four promising pillar industries taking shape globally.
The 2013 Report on China’s Oceanic Development, issued by the State Oceanic Administration, indicates that the contribution of China’s marine economy to the national economy has been climbing steadily. It predicts that by 2020 its share in the country’s GDP will exceed 12 percent, and rise further to 15 percent in 2030. According to the report, the oceanic industry’s added value in local GDP in China’s 11 coastal provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions will also see gradual increases. It is forecasted that the marine economy growth rate will be higher than the overall economic growth rate in China’s coastal regions.
These coastal regions are increasingly devoted to their local marine economy’s development. Tianjin aims to build six oceanic industrial chains including a modern fishery industry. The plan is to form a modern oceanic industrial system. Fujian Province has invested a total of RMB 163.885 billion in 183 marine economy projects. Shenzhen in Guangdong Province has introduced its 2013-2020 Plan on the Development of the Oceanic Industry, vowing to boost the marine economy to become an important growth point for the city’s future economic development.
Hainan Province, where Wang Yi’s undertaking is based, has also put a premium on the marine economy. Local officials say that the high added value of oceanic industry is conducive to optimizing the region’s economic structure and will also provide new space for sustainable development and a new growth point. Although the province with the largest oceanic area, Hainan is yet to feature an extensive development mode for a marine economy with comparatively low levels of resource exploitation and water utilization. It is therefore a pressing issue that the province advances the transformation and upgrading of its marine economy.
