Written by: reporter Wang Jiangao, intern reporter Song Yingying Planning: Zhao Yingshu, Teng Jipu, Lin Lijun
【Produced by Shentong Studio】
This "aircraft carrier" for fish farming has integrated a large number of innovative technologies, opened up a new track in the field of fishery production, and led the Chinese people's yearning for a better life to a new era.
Right now, there is an "aircraft carrier" anchored in the sea off Dachen Island in Zhejiang Province. It is as big as two Liaoning ships. This is the world's first 100,000-ton smart fishery large-scale aquaculture vessel - "Guoxin No. 1". , The blue and white giant wheel is like a dragon lying on the waves, quietly embedded in the sea.
There are secrets hidden on the ship.
The staff stared nervously at the screen, and all kinds of machinery were busy: sucking fish, pre-cooling, sorting, chilling and other processes were shuttling like an assembly line, and it only took 45 minutes to catch the large yellow croaker. Packed and shipped out; on the other side, Ms. Bi, who lives in Shaanxi Province, is tapping the "little yellow car" on the short video platform.
Two days later, a fresh large yellow croaker from the deep sea will be delivered to the door by a courier and brought to the dining table of ordinary people.
Deep-sea fish are an excellent source of protein.
The latest version of the Dietary Guidelines recommends that people consume fish twice a week or 300-500 grams.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to let Chinese people eat fish and eat good fish, countless scientific and technological personnel have passed on their lives and wisdom to this cause.
Since September 1 this year, the large yellow croaker raised in the cabin of the "Guoxin No. 1" ship has been launched one after another, and it is comparable to the wild-level high-quality large yellow croaker "swimming" on the dining table of ordinary people.
This "aircraft carrier" for fish farming has integrated a large number of innovative technologies, opened up a new track in the field of fishery production, and led the Chinese people's yearning for a better life to a new era.
The Chinese waited 40 years for this ship
The ocean is known as the "blue granary" for humans to obtain high-quality protein.
In the Yin and Shang Dynasties, there are records of Chinese people eating fish.
At the beginning of the founding of New China, the problem of difficulty in eating fish was very prominent for a long time.
With the efforts of scientific researchers, the artificial reproduction of the "Four Great Fish" has been successful; breakthroughs have also been made in the breeding of shrimp, scallops, and algae.
With the development of social economy, we are no longer satisfied with "fishing" every year, but also need to eat good fish and eat healthy and environmentally friendly.
This can only be achieved by relying on industrialization.
As early as the 1980s, my country's marine fishery experts forward-lookingly proposed the design concept of aquaculture vessels in the distant sea, but due to the weak industrial base at that time, this dream was stranded.
On May 20 this year, with the sound of the whistle, the "Guoxin No. 1" was officially delivered and put into operation. It set sail from the Haixi Bay of Qingdao and entered the deep sea, opening a new era of farming, sea, animal husbandry and fishery.
"From conception to landing, the Chinese have been waiting for this ship for 40 years!" said Dong Shaoguang, deputy general manager of Qingdao Guoxin Group, with emotion.
Standing on the pier, you can feel its grandeur.
It has the physique of a large merchant ship: 249.9 meters in length, 45 meters in width, and 21.5 meters in depth; but it does the work of a fishing boat: it has 15 breeding cabins, and the breeding water body is nearly 90,000 cubic meters, with an annual output of 3,700 tons of large yellow croaker. .
The ship has a displacement of 130,000 tons and a deadweight of 100,000 tons.
The water volume of one breeding tank is more than that of two standard swimming pools.
The total water body of the 15 aquaculture cabins is nearly 90,000 cubic meters.
The shock brought by "Guoxin No. 1" is far more than that.
On the boat, fry feeding, water exchange, lighting, and adult fishing can be completed automatically.
In the breeding monitoring room, the staff are carefully observing the operation status of various systems such as oxygen, feeding, breeding seawater, and breeding lighting of the whole ship through the screen, and monitoring the temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and pH of the water body in the breeding cabin in real time.
"The ship has built a ship-side intelligent management and control center and a shore-based integrated ship-shore intelligent cloud platform." Tian Naidong, project and commercial director of Guoxin CSSC (Qingdao) Marine Technology Co., Ltd. Centralized control and real-time monitoring of water, oxygen, light, feed and fish in the breeding cabin, so that the data in the entire production and breeding process can be transmitted to the shore base in real time, ensuring the integrated linkage of the ship and the shore, and the remote monitoring of the shore base. Ship intelligence.
This boat did not come easily.
In 2019, Qingdao Guoxin Group, together with China State Shipbuilding Corporation, China Fisheries Research Institute, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology Pilot and other units, began to explore the construction of large-scale aquaculture ships.
The R&D team conducts independent research, organizes more than 80 expert demonstration meetings, more than 100 inspections and investigations, and clarifies more than 1,000 issues on ship technology and aquaculture industrialization, so that the "farming worker ship" has been gradually enriched from a vague concept to a detailed one. Drawing set and report set, and complete the research and development, construction and sea trial of aquaculture vessel step by step.
McConson, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of Ocean University of China, believes that the operation of "Guoxin No. 1" will not only drive the development of directly related industries such as seedlings, breeding, feed, health, processing, and sales, but also drive the manufacture of ships and breeding equipment. , fishery intelligent equipment, ocean logistics and other security industries will lead a new round of technological revolution in aquaculture.
Multi-discipline and integration of key technologies
How was this "aircraft carrier" made?
"The research and development, design and construction of the 'Guoxin No. 1' aquaculture vessel is a systematic project, which is the result of multi-disciplinary crossover and the integration of various key technologies." said Xu Hao, director of the Institute of Fishery Machinery and Instruments of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences. .
Aquaculture technology and ship technology have been developed for many years, but deep-sea tank culture is still an emerging field to be pioneered.
Although there are precedents of commercial ships being transformed into aquaculture vessels to carry out aquaculture experiments around the world, there is no mature experience in how to build a ship, how to raise fish, how to implement the industry, and technology and operations for reference.
The researchers seem to be in a black box. Where to open the door, where to have a window, and whether to get out was unknown at the beginning of the ship's construction.
The core model of "Guoxin No. 1" is called "on-board cabin maintenance" by researchers, which is an international initiative.
"No one has ever raised fish on board for a full cycle before. Is 'onboard cabin culture' feasible? How to raise it? How to provide the best growth environment for fish?" Xu Hao said, starting from these questions, the R&D team gathered wisdom Tackling key problems, overcoming one problem after another.
The first is the powertrain.
"Guoxin No. 1" is comparable in size to two Liaoning ships. In terms of power system, it is not only necessary to meet the main power demand under cruising conditions, but also to comprehensively consider the stable supply of power for the whole ship under different breeding modes.
To this end, the R&D team has equipped the ship with a complete power system including the main generator set, electric propulsion system, shaft propeller propulsion system, and automation system.
When the ship is in transit, the electric propulsion system will play a role to meet the navigation needs; when the ship is at anchor, the main generator set provides the power energy for the whole ship's breeding and processing equipment to ensure the continuity of breeding.
Secondly, the breeding objects of "Guoxin No. 1" are mainly large yellow croaker, and large yellow croaker has higher requirements on the quiet environment of the breeding environment.
A major difficulty in the design and construction of the ship is the control of vibration and noise.
The large yellow croaker has otoliths in its ears. Since ancient times, Chinese fishermen have the custom of catching the big yellow croaker by knocking on the boat to catch the fish.
Scientifically speaking, large yellow croaker is a farmed fish species with a relatively strong stress response. Therefore, the suppression of noise has become the key point of scientific and technological research.
Xu Hao said that for the equipment and environment that will generate vibration and noise on the working ship, the R&D team jointly tackled key problems to form the final solution. Active damping measures were adopted for the main vibration and noise sources, which effectively controlled the vibration and noise level of the entire ship.
After a number of improvements in noise reduction technology, the underwater noise of the aquaculture cabin has reached the level of a silent scientific research ship under the navigation and aquaculture conditions.
In terms of water exchange, the worker ship supplies water with a low-lift and high-flow aquaculture pump, so that high-quality seawater at a depth of 40 meters is continuously injected into the aquaculture cabin, reaching a total of 16 times of water exchange per day, ensuring that high-density aquaculture fish is always in good condition. seawater living environment.
In order to simulate ocean currents and form a swirling flow field suitable for fish swimming, the water velocity in the aquaculture cabin of the industrial vessel is always maintained at 0.2-0.4 m/s.
"Creating an optimal growth environment for fish can ensure the vitality of farmed fish." Xu Hao explained that the seawater overflows through the drainage pipe to the side to complete the water exchange and form a rotating flow field.
In terms of technical research and equipment research and development of water-keeping environment regulation and equipment research and development in industrial ships, the R&D team has equipped the industrial ships with key equipment such as high-efficiency energy-saving cabin maintenance and oxygenation equipment, and intelligent light control system.
Centering on the design, R&D and construction of "Guoxin No. 1", the R&D team has completed innovative achievements centered on "large-scale aquaculture vessel functions and ship types" and "fish intensive 'ship-borne tank culture' technology and equipment". With more than 30 independent intellectual property rights, it has broken through six key technologies such as on-board tank maintenance, water exchange, anti-sway and vibration control, vibration and noise reduction, pollution removal and anti-corrosion, and intelligent centralized control.
The project has formed a series of more than 60 technical achievements, and applied for more than 40 patent protections, including 1 international patent, and obtained more than 10 authorizations.
Mobile 'Sea Ranch' advances to the deep sea
Fisheries are an important part of national food security strategies.
In recent years, overfishing has led to the decline of marine fishery resources, and traditional near-shore aquaculture methods such as cages face many problems such as excessive breeding density and environmental pollution in local waters.
The development of my country's fishery urgently needs to seek space from the deep sea and the ocean, and develop a new production method of marine fishery mainly based on breeding.
"From the Chinese people's consumption habits of aquatic products, from the needs of China's food security and food safety, deep-sea aquaculture is a step that must be taken." McConson said.
Under the ship-borne cabin culture mode, "Guoxin No. 1" can self-navigate and switch between selected anchorages according to the characteristics of fish farming and according to the changes of water temperature and environment. cruising from time to time, according to the most suitable sea area such as water temperature, ocean current, climate, etc., to provide suitable temperature and good environment for fish growth, improve the quality and efficiency of cultured fish, and realize the year-round growth of high-value fish such as large yellow croaker. Sustainable supply.
On the boat, the large yellow croaker that was just caught was beautiful in shape, with golden belly and jade fins, and was of excellent quality.
Tian Naidong said that the large yellow croaker does not like light, and when it is caught in a dark and oxygen-deficient environment, the adult fish will become golden and more beautiful in color.
Therefore, before picking up fish, workers will adjust the light and oxygen conditions in the breeding cabin.
According to the previous pilot-scale cabin culture experiments, as well as the farming experience in the operation of industrial ships so far, the breeding density of "Guoxin No. 1" is 4-6 times that of traditional cages, and the breeding cycle can be shortened by 1/3.
With a carrying capacity of 100,000 tons, as well as two modes of self-propelled mobile and anchored fixed, "Guoxin No. 1" has both stability and flexibility. It can effectively avoid typhoons, red tides, stay away from pollution, and greatly reduce natural pollution. The impact of disasters on aquaculture.
At the same time, through the precise control of industrialization, "Guoxin No. 1" can effectively reduce the impact on the ecological environment, and it is a marine fishery practice that implements the concept of "clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".
Compared with the cage aquaculture system, the "Guoxin No. 1" aquaculture vessel is a more advanced and intelligent new type of farming system, marking the breakthrough from 0 to 1 in my country's deep-sea large-scale farming vessel industry.
Can "Guo Xin No. 1" be copied?
"In fact, 'Guoxin No. 1' is already preparing for the operation of the follow-up industrial ships." Tian Naidong revealed that in addition to the main species of large yellow croaker, "Guoxin No. 1" is also actively exploring other fish breeding species. specification.
This is a mobile "sea ranch", which can complete the whole process of fish fry entering the cabin, feeding and breeding, catching, processing and transportation.
It demonstrates, leads and promotes marine aquaculture from a traditional model to an industrialized and intelligent model, and from fixed aquaculture facilities to mobile aquaculture equipment, expanding the blue development space for deep seas.
"Guoxin No. 1" has innovated the production method of marine fishery.
The first five waves of marine aquaculture in my country were all to solve the problem of industrialization of marine biological resources and seeds, and the sixth wave of marine aquaculture will shift from traditional fish farming in the nearshore to large-scale industrial production in the deep sea.
This revolution is an integrated innovation that integrates the whole industry chain such as seed breeding, industrial aquaculture, ship equipment, artificial intelligence, and information technology. It opens up a new track and represents the latest production method of marine fishery.
"'Guoxin No. 1' effectively implements the big food concept of 'requiring protein from rivers, lakes, and seas', and pushes the breeding area from the near shore to the far-reaching sea, and realizes the innovative exploration of marine aquaculture from traditional agriculture to modern industrial production. "Qingdao Guoxin Group Party Committee Secretary and Chairman Wang Jianhui introduced to reporters that in order to further implement the "Chinese plan" of deep-sea aquaculture, Guoxin Group has launched Guoxin No. 2-1, No. 2-2, No. 2-3 breeding ship projects , and simultaneously launched the functional demonstration and overall design of the 300,000-ton super-large hull, reserved key technologies in advance, and explored parental preservation, seed breeding and full-cycle industrialized breeding.
"In the next five years, we will continue to invest in the construction of 50 aquaculture vessels, equipped with 13 supply vessels, fuel bunkering vessels, and comprehensive test vessels, with a total tonnage exceeding 10 million tons and an annual output of 400,000 tons of various marine fish. , The deep-sea aquaculture industry chain with an annual output value exceeding 50 billion yuan, and making every effort to create a 'blue granary' at sea." Wang Jianhui said.
(Our reporter Yang Lun also contributed to this article)