China is restoring the sea through high-tech marine farms
A diver swims off the shore of Wuzhizhou Island, where fish populations multiplied tenfold after artificial reefs were introduced.
YANG GUANYU/XINHUA/ALAMY
Chinese universities are world leaders in applied sciences, from agricultural research to materials science. Neil Loneragan is a professor of marine science emeritus at Murdoch University, Australia, and president of the Asian Fisheries Society in Malaysia. He says that fundamental questions can be difficult to answer within China’s “quite special” research and innovation environment. Loneragan, president of the Malaysia-based Asian Fisheries Society and a professor emeritus of marine science at Murdoch University in Australia, says that the central government’s control over the development ranching means researchers have to walk a fine line between the two bosses – the academic supervisors and the party leaders. He says that marine biologists are interested in the basics. “But researchers would have spin it so that it’s showing economic returns to industry, and therefore, the benefits for the government.” Many efforts are being made to solve known problems with captive-bred fish life cycles, including inadequate breeding rates and the difficult survival odds of young fish in the ocean. These early stages of fish’s lives are more vulnerable to environmental changes, such as storms or recent ocean heatwaves. Zhongxin Wu, who is testing this radical solution, wants to improve the fitness of fish before they are released into the wild from breeding tanks. Wu claims that currently, fish are placed in oxygenated bags and released into ocean nurseries. However, it is soon apparent that they are lacking in skills. His team has developed a series of “wild-training” tools in response. He says that the main method of training is swimming. The juvenile fish are forced against the current to swim on an aquatic treadmill to help them acclimatize to the demands of nature. He says another technique involves changing the temperature of the water and introducing other species to help prepare the fish for the seagrass and the kelp forest they will encounter in the outside world. Most ranches today create underwater environments by installing precast concrete structures under 20 meters of seawater. These structures are often rough-surfaced to encourage the growth of algae or coral. In China, the average ranch is aiming for 30,000 cubic metres of artificial reefs. For example, in an area devoted to conservation, around Wuzhizhou Island 1,000 concrete reef structures have been dropped along the island’s tropical shores. The fish population has multiplied by ten in the past decade.
