Deep-Sea Aquaculture Begins—Update

Near-shore fish-growing aquaculture (fish farms) has been a growing industry for several decades, but the industry has problems.  There have been buildups of pollution from feed, fish wastes, and chemicals.  A more immediate expensive problem for operators is that dense populations of cultured fish in polluted waters often fall prey to parasites such as sea lice. 

One way to reduce these problems is to move fish-farm operations from the shallow near-shore waters out to the deep sea.  An additional clean-water benefit would be derived from moving steadily to different waters as done by a moving ship. A Chinese enterprise is doing just those things.

The world’s first giant floating fish farm (the “Guoxin 1”) sailed from the eastern port city of Qingdao in China on May 20, 2022 to begin its sea trials. The ship holds 15 fish-culturing tanks, each tank bigger than two standard swimming pools.  The ship is expected to produce up to 3,700 tons (3,400 metric tons) of fish per year.

The vessel is 820 feet (250 meters) long and 147 feet (45 meters) wide, with a displacement of 130,000 tons (118,000 metric tons. It will now head to the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea to test harvesting of different types of fish in waters of different temperatures.

In October of 2022, the Guoxin 1 delivered its first harvest consisting of 65 tons of large yellow croaker.  If continued operations are successful, the plan is to eventually operate fifty such ships.  This would demonstrate deep-sea aquaculture. 

The next logical step would be moving just the fish rather than moving entire tanker-size ships.  A large ship holding position, or moored in position with large cables, could access more clean water by pumping cold nutrient-rich water from the depths.  Such water would be used as cooling water for a thermal electric power generating station.  The station would power a seafood factory ship and house its crew.  The “waste heat” produced could be used to adjust the aquaculture temperature to optimal temperatures for the fish species being cultured. 

At the same time, a fixed site for fish culturing could also be surrounded by a miles-wide web of cables for attaching cultured sea plants and cages of cultured fish.  The plants would be crucial for three functions: (1) providing additional salable products; (2) consuming the waste streams from fish operations to grow plants rather than being pollution; (3) providing some of the food for cultured sea animals; and finally, (4) drawing down global-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help mitigate global warming.

This is the start of the agricultural revolution at sea, comparable to the agricultural revolution on land that made civilization possible—only this revolution will be bigger.  After all, land only comprises 29% of the surface of the planet inaccurately called … Earth.

This is bigger than the Moon Race.  You can’t eat Moon rocks.  American people, industry, and government had better splash in and start competing!

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Loukia Papadopoulos, “World’s First Giant Floating Ocean Farm to Deliver 3,700 Tons of Fish per Year,” Interesting Engineering, May 25, 2022.  https://interestingengineering.com/worlds-first-giant-floating-ocean-farm-to-deliver-3700-tons-of-fish-per-year  (accessed May 27, 2022)

Vince McDonagh, “China’s giant floating fish farm starts trials,” Fish Farmer, Feb. 7, 2022. https://www.fishfarmermagazine.com/news/chinas-giant-floating-fish-farm-starts-trials/ (accessed May 28, 2022)

“Chinese Aquaculture Vessel Guoxin 1 Trumpets First Yellow Croaker Harvest, Undercurrent News, Oct. 5, 2022.  https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2022/10/05/chinese-aquaculture-vessel-guoxin-1-trumpets-first-yellow-croaker-harvest/ (Accessed Jan. 22, 2023)

Youbin Yu, Wenyun Huang, Fei Yin, et al., “Aquaculture in an Offshore Ship: An On-Site Test of Large Yellow Croaker (Larimichthys crocea), Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, Jan. 4, 2023.  https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/11/1/101/htm (Accessed Jan. 22, 2023)

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