Hainan explores sustainable fishery

Zeng Guangneng, a fish farmer in Wenchang, a city in South China's island province of Hainan, has experienced several major life changes. His grandfather was a sea fisherman, his father bred fish on the shore, and now he has moved fish ponds into a building.

In a new, two-story breeding demonstration building of Fengjiawan Modern Fishery Industrial Park in Wenchang, Zeng carefully checked the growth of fish fry in the aquaculture ponds.

As one of the first groups of fish farmers in the park, Zeng moved there in May last year and has benefited from modern aquatic breeding.

The building adopts multi-story breeding to increase the space for ponds. During the first three-year trial, the park also exempted these fish farmers from fees, including rent and water supply costs.

From April to May this year, Zeng sold over 250,000 high-end fish fry with a total income of about 1.5 million yuan ($225,000).

"Compared with the traditional greenhouse breeding model, temperature and light are controlled here. It is also easier to monitor diseases. It is conducive to cultivating high-end fry varieties," said Zeng.

Fengjiawan Bay was a famous base for shrimp seedlings in the late 1980s. However, a long-term, extensive fish culture that involved uncontrolled tailwater discharge had caused pollution on the beach.

In 2016, nearly 1,000 households of aquaculture farmers lived along Fengjiawan Bay coastline, and the dense pipelines and widespread fish ponds looked like scars when seen from the sky.

Last year, the local government relocated 195 households of fish farmers at Fengjiawan Bay to restore the environment. In their place, they planted mangroves.

In 2020, the local government began to build the modern fishery industrial park at Fengjiawan Bay area, explored the multilayer breeding model, and promoted the green transformation of the fishery industry.

Liu Wenlong, a park official, said that to solve pollution the park collects the aquaculture tailwater together and treats it with modern technology, and then discharges the treated tailwater after it reaches the required standard, which means it will not pollute the seawater.

So far, eight farmer households, including Zeng's, have moved into the park, which covers nearly 467 hectares.

"My family has lived here for generations. We used to do well in aquaculture, but over the past five or six years, farm numbers have greatly increased. The water quality has become poor due to the need for water and drainage. So it's challenging to succeed," said Zeng, adding that the government has centralized water use and drainage in the park to solve the problem.

According to Zeng, they used to breed fish in plastic greenhouses by the seaside, and a typhoon could wipe out everything they had earned. "The conditions here are good, and a typhoon will have little impact on the building," said Zeng, noting it has mitigated the risks and helped increase output.

The park has also attracted 14 breeding enterprises and two research institutions.

Favoring the excellent water quality in Fengjiawan Bay and the high-standard environmental protection facilities in the new park, Bohai Aquatic Breeding (Hainan) plans to build an aquatic breeding base covering 6.4 hectares with a total investment of 150 million yuan.

"The breeding environment and conditions became controllable in the park. Shrimp seedling survival rates and quality have significantly improved compared to the traditional breeding model," said Hu Zhongjie, administrative director of Bohai Aquatic Breeding (Hainan).