Food for thought

China's first fully submerged fish farm, anchored in the Yellow Sea, is intended to meet the country's ever-growing appetite for seafood and provide a ordable food for all.

Shenlan 1

At 2:50 pm on July 2, Shenlan I - China's first deep - sea fish-farming facility - was put into operation in the Yellow Sea. The move marked the start of the country's attempts to achieve large-scale breeding of fish in the open seas.

Construction of the facility by Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry in Qingdao, Shandong province, was completed in May.

The cage was then hauled into a mass of cold water, about 240 kilometers east of Rizhao, Shandong.

The work of transporting the cage was expected to take just 10 hours, but it took about 30 hours as a result of security checks at ports and adverse weather conditions, according to Wanzefeng Fishery Co, a company in Rizhao that will use the facility to breed salmon.

After transportation, the first part of the installation process was to secure four chains - each about 100 meters in length and weighing to 100 metric tons - to anchor the cage in the water.