Toward offshore aquaculture in China: opportunities, challenges and development strategies

This paper classifies and compares different types of mariculture and equipment involved in deeper offshore aquaculture according to China’s national conditions, and reviews the opportunities, challenges and development strategies facing nearshore and offshore aquaculture, especially deeper offshore aquaculture. Mariculture can be divided into coastal aquaculture, off-the-coast aquaculture, offshore aquaculture, and deeper offshore aquaculture, and the first two can be collectively referred to as nearshore aquaculture. Deeper offshore aquaculture or equipped offshore aquaculture refers to offshore aquaculture that employs steel framework and automatic feeding system, that withstands or can avoid strong typhoons. The equipment of deeper offshore aquaculture includes offshore pens, composite steel cages (including semi-submersible and fully submersible ones), vessel-shaped cages (powered or unpowered) and sea-based aquaculture tanks (including aquaculture vessels and closed aquaculture tanks). The development from coastal to off-the-coast and further offshore mariculture has been an academic consensus and an inherent demand of the aquaculture industry in China. Stocking appropriate species and quantity of juveniles according to the ecological carrying capacity and social carrying capacity of the aquaculture waters, carrying out multi-trophic integrated aquaculture, and implementing industrial integration development are efficient ways to improve the production and economic benefits of off-the-coast and offshore aquaculture. Considering the coexistence of nearshore aquaculture, offshore aquaculture and deeper offshore aquaculture at present, deeper offshore aquaculture can only be profitable by cultivating higher-quality species that are difficult to cultivate in ponds, coastal waters and off-the-coast waters, or species that can gain additional income through deeper offshore aquaculture. Fish-oriented intelligentization based on knowledge of fish behavior and physiology is the current shortcoming of intelligent deeper offshore aquaculture, which can only be solved through in-depth cooperation among experts in aquaculture, fish biology, engineering and information technology. The development of deeper offshore aquaculture is in urgent need of a large-scale innovative operation model that integrates aquaculture, food processing, logistics, wind power generation, tourism etc., to achieve a triple win for environmental protection, economy and people’s wellbeing.