“The sky is vast, the wilderness is boundless”, what important role does agriculture and animal husbandry play in the sea?

When it comes to ranches, everyone will think of the old ballad "The sky is vast, the wilderness is boundless, the wind blows through the grassland and cattle and sheep appear", and will think of the grassland scenery with lush grass and herds of cattle and sheep. Although marine ranches are different from grassland ranches, the principles are the same.

In 2019, experts and scholars in the field of marine ranching in my country clarified the concept and connotation of marine ranching at the 230th Shuangqing Forum of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. That is, an ecosystem that combines environmental protection, resource conservation and sustainable fishery output functions is constructed in suitable sea areas based on ecological principles, making full use of natural productivity, using modern engineering technology and management models, and through habitat restoration and artificial proliferation.

The ocean contains rich and diverse biological resources, which occupy a very important position in human production and life. The construction of marine ranches is an effective measure to achieve resource conservation and sustainable output of fisheries. At present, my country has implemented the construction of hundreds of national marine ranch demonstration areas, covering the four major sea areas of Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea, with conservation, proliferation and leisure as the main categories. Modern marine ranches realize the visualization, informatization and intelligence of marine ranch monitoring by building a real-time monitoring system for ecological efficacy, promote the transformation and upgrading of fisheries, increase the output value of fisheries, and improve product quality while increasing production. In addition, many cities in my country's coastal areas are not satisfied with the simple breeding function, and make full use of the natural endowments and favorable conditions of the islands to optimize the allocation and rational use of fishery resources, environmental resources and tourism resources, and make leisure sea fishing, fishing and farming culture, fisherman experience, fishery tourism, etc. into new highlights of county economic growth, continuously extend the industrial chain, and accelerate the mutual combination and transfer of the first, second and third industries.

Marine ranching may seem to be just obtaining resources from the ocean, but in fact it is also a form of giving back to the ocean. It plays an important role in protecting the environment, restoring habitats, and helping to achieve self-replenishment of marine biological resources.

According to the 2021 China Marine Economic Statistical Bulletin released by the Department of Marine Strategic Planning and Economy of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Asia's largest deep-sea intelligent cage "Jinghai 001" was successfully launched and raised to collect fish, and the fully submersible deep-sea aquaculture equipment box "Deep Blue 1" achieved large-scale "salmon" fish collection for the first time, further marking the accelerated development of my country's marine ranches towards green, intelligent and deep sea. As of 2022, my country's national marine ranch demonstration areas have increased to 153, and multiple deep-sea aquaculture platforms in Shandong, Fujian, Hainan and other places have been put into production.

Although we still face many challenges in the modernization and ecologization of marine ranches, in the face of this "new blue ocean", we will be proactive, set sail, chase the waves, cultivate the sea and fish, and play a magnificent movement of advancing into the deep blue!

Review expert: Tu Qiang, deputy editor of Ocean Publishing House

China Association for Science and Technology Department of Science Popularization

Xinhuanet

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