Chinese Fish Farming

China has two thirds of aquaculture in the world. Aquaculture is thriving in China in the Shandong Peninsula. For over twenty years, the chinese have been discovering the beach. With a population topping the billions, China is investing heavily in aquaculture but it is facing serious challenges from pollution and to prevent diseases in the fish. There is a need to reduce the density of fish in fish farms on the coast of China. Yantai and Qingdao are important areas of fish farms in china. There is deteriorating water quality because of the pressures of chemicals and industrial pollution, as well as the effluent of millions of peoples. Buildings are being cleared for high rise housing, but water treatment plants do not process the sewerage and the raw sewage is flowing into the rivers.

Pollution is a big problem all over china but especially for aquaculture. Disease is a big problem as well. Prawn stocks have been hit and there has been a major loss of prawns to about fifty percent or 150,000 tonnes. The epidemic began in Thailand and travelled around the world to China. Lots of prawn farms had to be abandoned. With the help of Korea and Japan aquaculture adapted turned to fish farming. Prawns were more profitable but now fish are becoming just as profitable. Private fish famers exported new varieties of fish from KOrea. Fish producers produce tons of fish and sell most of their catch to south korea.

Fish farming is a popular business in China and has increased the standard of living for many chinese families. Competition has increased production. At Yangtai the local fishing fleet are fishing for small fry as fodder for the fish farms. But the fishing is not sustainable and the number of small fish farms is growing. Inland a related industry supplies the fish farm with fish food. The fish are dried and supplied as fish meal. They are worth about fifty dollars a ton. New species are coming on stream such as turbot. The fish were bred in Penglai and the stocks originally came from France. But the Chinese turbot have an unusual color but will receive only fifty percent of their value.

Aquaculture research is not supported much in China but the fish are still sold whatever the lack of scientific research into aquaculture research. Rongtung has the largest fish farm in the world and produces the japanese harami. Along the coastal area female fish grow faster than male fish. The gender of the fish can be controlled by genetic manipulation. All the systems of fish farm production have been analysed. Chinese aquaculture has no preconceptions and market forces determine fish stocks that will be farmed. They are finding ways to save money. Every effort is being made to modernise old farms and keep them operating. They are also growing seaweed in farms. For the villagers the protein of fish has supplemented their diet and kept up their needed protein intake.

As well as fish, molluscs such as mussels, clams, and scallops are being farmed on a large scale. Some private fish farm companies have a communist party member in charge. They have to cultivate more fish in the sea - that is the party's priority in China. Seaweed is processed in factories and the workers live in compounds where they live full time and work eight or ten hours a day. The chinese have asked many foreign offices for advice in production methods, pollution control and disease control.

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