China converts cargo ship into giant fish farm as food security push gets creative
China wants to build a ‘marine bread basket’ to shore up its food supply. Its latest idea: turning old vessels into mobile fish farms
A Chinese company has converted a giant cargo ship into a mobile fish farm as part of a project that aims to boost the nation’s food security by repurposing old vessels for use in aquaculture.
The ship, named the Zhe Dai Yu Yang 60001, is a hulking bulk carrier measuring 225 metres in length and 32.2 metres in width, which used to have a capacity of 80,000 deadweight tonnes.
But it will now be used to produce up to 2,800 tonnes of fish per year after its conversion by a subsidiary of the state-owned shipbuilding giant China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).
“It is an innovative practice by CSSC to empower marine development with technology and strengthen the ‘marine bread basket’,” the company said in a press release on Monday.
CSSC has been leading a project to explore the reuse of old vessels for seawater-exchange aquaculture since 2017, with the works to refit the Zhe Dai Yu Yang 60001 reportedly taking around three months to complete.