July 27, 2009

The authorities of Changdao, an island county in China's Shandong province, have announced a major commitment to establish a "blue marine economy" in the area.

 

The move came after a similar initiative was launched to build a larger "blue" economic zone in Shandong.

 

According to Jiang Qingchun, party secretary of Changdao's committee, the county's best options for sustained growth are to capitalise on its maritime resources and hasten the speed of developing an eco-fishing programme, in conjunction with a number of other environmentally-friendly industries and an eco-tourism base.

 

Some of the authorities' goals include the construction of a national eco-fishing model area with one million mu of underwater forests and fish farms of more than one million mu in size as well as the formation of a national ocean energy base which is designed to generate one million kilowatts in wind power. In addition, they plan to develop a holiday resort projected to attract one million affluent tourists yearly.

 

Sun Yubin, director of the county's Oceanic and Fishery Bureau (OFB), said the development of aquaculture farms will put Changdao on a sustainable growth track and create a highly-efficient modern fishing industry.

 

The man-made underwater seaweed is expected to provide a better environment for ocean organisms and thus create conditions for multi-layered cultivation methods. As a result, kelp will be kept in the upper layer, fish and shellfish in the middle layer and valuable seafood items such as abalone and sea cucumber will be nurtured on the deepest level.

 

Meanwhile, statistics from OFB show Changdao's current submarine forest and ecological fish farms have been expanded to 400,000 mu and 600,000 mu respectively while the county's seafood output value reported an on-year increase of 29 percent in 2008.

 

Within the next five years, the county plans to build an additional 600,000 mu of undersea forests and 400,000 mu of eco-fish farms. By that time, the fishing base will cater for a range of ocean species like abalone, sea cucumber, sea urchin, scallop and kelp.

 

At the moment, Changdao's large-scale eco-aquaculture is at an globally advanced stage and it will set an example for other coastal areas that are interested to develop an aquatic industry, said Li Naisheng, deputy director of the Department of Science and Technology of Shandong and a director of the National Oceanographic Centre in Qingdao (NOCQ).