June 20, 2022

China marks first harvest of self-produced deep-sea Atlantic salmon

About 15,000 Atlantic salmons in the net cage of a fully submersible deep-sea fish farming equipment were fished during the period from May 22 to June 9, marking China's first successful harvest of self-bred deep-sea Atlantic salmon, Xinhua reported on June 17.

"This is China's first successful large-scale farming of Atlantic salmons in warm waters," said Guo Peng, chief agronomist of the agriculture and rural affairs department of east China's Shandong Province.

Deep Blue No. 1, the first fully submersible deep-sea fish farming equipment built by China, is located at about 130 nautical miles from the coast of the Yellow Sea of the country. As the harvesting began, a thick tube was inserted into the net cage of the equipment and one Atlantic salmon after another were inhaled from the sea into the vessel.

After preliminary processing in the vessel, workers packed the fish in long transparent bags and placed them in special insulated boxes, which were then covered with ice and sealed to ensure the temperature of the fish could be maintained.

China chose to breed Atlantic salmon 30 meters below the water of the Yellow Sea, where the temperature, water quality, dissolved oxygen and other indicators are perfect for them to live.

"There are about 100,000 Atlantic salmons in the net cage, and so far, a total of 15,000 fish have been harvested," said Li Hong, vice chairwoman of Shandong Far-sea Aquaculture Co., Ltd., adding that the quality of those salmons meets the standards for export to the European Union.

Most of the Atlantic salmons will be transported to big Chinese cities such as Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai via both cold chain and airfreight, reaching primary distributors in 36 hours.

- Xinhua