The world's first low-latitude farming of Atlantic salmon has achieved a bumper harvest in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, with a total of 15,000 fish harvested so far, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Shenlan 1, China's first deep-sea fish farm, bred a total of 100,000 Atlantic salmon. The already harvested 15,000 fish also marks the country's first catch of Atlantic salmon from deep and far sea, Guo Peng, an official from Shandong' agricultural authority said.

The farming has been implemented by a project promotion platform jointly launched by Shandong Marine Group, Wanzefeng Group, and Qingdao Ocean Investment Group, aiming to promote the development of the national deep and far sea green culture experiment zone in Qingdao.

Shenlan 1 is constantly being renovated and upgraded, Tang Qingkai, who is in charge of the promotion platform told Xinhua.

The breeding situation on land can be visualized, directly managed, and reached from a hundred nautical miles away with one click thanks to the newly added biomass monitoring system, optimized breeding monitoring system and remote information transmission system, according to Tang. He added that the biomass monitoring system enables real-time monitoring of fish living conditions, feeding conditions, and fish's shape and size, so staff members can accurately adjust feeding at any time according to information provided, which greatly improves the quality of fish.

The experiment zone is located in the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass, with the temperature remaining under 12C all year round, which is suitable for the growth of salmon and other high value-added cold-water fish.

In 2021, Shenlan 1 harvested 150,000 adult salmon in the experiment zone, with the average weight of individual fish exceeding 4 kilograms and the quality exceeding the EU export standard, marking the success of China's first deep-sea large-scale salmon farming, stdaily.com reported.

Industry insiders noted that domestic farming salmon will reduce logistics and labor costs and produce fresher fish, while the better water quality of deep and far sea will advance the fish quality as well.

With China's spending power growing, the market demand for salmon has been gradually increasing, Zhu Danpeng, a veteran food industry observer told the Global Times on Thursday, adding that the nation's dependence on imported salmon will continue to reduce following domestic farming progressing.

Global Times