A Chinese shipping firm on Saturday delivered the world's first automated offshore fishery to Norwegian fish farming company SalMar ASA.
Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation delivered the vessel to SalMar ASA at its dock in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
SalMar is one of the world's largest companies in salmon production and processing.
The vessel, 110 meters in diameter and 69 meters tall, weighs 7,700 tons and can resist powerful typhoons of up to 36 meters per second wind speed. It can accommodate water for farming 1.5 million fish while maintaining a death rate of less than 2 percent.
A Wuchang group technical director said that a series of significant technical innovations were made during the manufacturing of the fishery, the world's first automated offshore fish farm, the Guangming Daily reported.
"The manufacture and export of this type of 'smart' and automated offshore fish farm marks our greater involvement in international fish farming markets," Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times.
"It also provides a bigger development space for China's domestic fish farming industry. It is a win-win situation for both domestic and overseas industries," Bai added.
