In an effort to raise quality and combat the environmental impacts of near shore farming, the Chinese government has commissioned the country’s first offshore fish farm.

Designed by oil and gas specialist De Maas, the farm is fully submersible and toughened to the extreme weather conditions of offshore production.

Each farm unit is capable of holding around 2.3 million kilos of large yellow croaker, a popular species on the domestic Chinese market, gifted to family and friends at Chinese New Year.

Traditionally a wild-caught species, near shore croaker farming took hold in China in the 1980s. But as intensity grew, quality progressively dropped, and along with it, the price and value of the industry.

The devaluation led the Chinese government to try and improve the situation as part of a CNY 1 billion (€127.8 million/$153.9 million) investment in Fujian province -- which also includes various tourism development and sustainable energy projects -- De Maas Director Philip Schreven told IntraFish. Part of that investment is a series of offshore farms for more sustainable and better quality production.

De Maas's SSFF150 150,000 cubic meter farms are, with a stocking density of around 15 kilos per cubic meter, capable of holding roughly 2,300 metric tons of fish, calculates Schreven, but stocking is in the hands of the producers, he said. The company also has larger-sized farms under development with farmers worldwide, from a 225,000 cubic-meter version, up to a 300,000 cubic-meter model.

The area earmarked for production, off the coast of Fujian province in China's southeast, is hit regularly by typhoons, so the cages are built to withstand the severest of weather. Fully submersible, the cages are made from a steel frame and copper nets, to reduce the need for cleaning, and have an integrated feeding system.

Although not traditionally involved in aquaculture, the structural demands of an offshore oil rig are fairly similar to that of an offshore fish farm and to that end, De Maas has brought knowledge of deep ocean engineering and the mooring systems needed to hold the structures in place.

Along the way Schreven and his team have been in close contact with the farmer and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) for certification of the design and manufacture of its SSFF farms.

"Similar to the existence of an array of certification bodies for the product -- ASC, Global GAP, etc. -- the traditional certification institutions from the oil and gas industry, such as DNV [the certifier of SalMar's Ocean 1 offshore farm] and ABS, are also starting to show an interest in this new branch of offshore technology," said Schreven.

Compared to traditional farming concepts this is far more expensive, so it’s naturally "a very big step change,” said Schreven, who has been living and working in Qingdao, China for 15 years.

But the Chinese government is "very pragmatic," said Schreven. "If they know a problem needs to be solved, they will set about solving it."

Construction of the farm cages are set to begin this month, with stocking planned for the third quarter of the year.

Aquaculture

Whitefish mega-farm marks China's move into offshore farming