The Seminar on Smart Fishery and Equipment Was Held
Digitization Empowers Fishery and Food Storage in the Sea
The boundless ocean teems with vitality and brims with hope. How can we leverage digital technologies to further enrich this blue granary? On November 16, the Seminar on Smart Fishery and Equipment was convened, gathering over 200 participants, including leaders and experts from national industry authorities, universities, research institutions, and leading enterprises. The seminar focused on the latest trends in smart fishery and equipment, emphasizing collaboration and innovation across the full industry chain, as well as industry implementation and cooperation. Discussions centered on the development prospects of smart fishery, intelligent and automated construction of marine fishery equipment, ecosystem development, and industrial advancements. The goal was to advance the high-end, sustainable, and smart transformation of marine fishery through theoretical exploration and practical insights.
Understanding the Trends:
Smart Fishery Will Be a Key Development Direction
At the seminar, Academician Xue Changhu of the Chinese Academy of Engineering delivered a keynote report on “Future Marine Food Technologies and Intelligent Manufacturing of Equipment”. He noted that aquatic product processing and distribution are critical links in the fishery industry, essential for extending the industrial chain and achieving higher efficiency and quality.
China has developed a comprehensive aquatic product processing system, including freezing, refrigeration, surimi production, drying and curing, canning, and by-product utilization. Complementing this is a modern aquatic product distribution system, with wholesale markets as the core and supermarkets and e-commerce as supplements. Current trends in the efficient use of aquatic products include diverse resource acquisition methods, biological synthesis of functional components, precision processing of marine foods, intelligent aquatic production equipment, precision pharmaceuticals, and biological products, and the integration of big data and artificial intelligence.
Participants agreed that under the rapid development of intelligent technology and the digital economy, smart fishery represents a vital growth area for China’s fishery industry. By advancing smart equipment and empowering intelligent management, the sector can enhance industry-university-research collaboration, improve technical capabilities, and optimize the industrial ecosystem. This will address bottlenecks in production and operational chains, improve safety, efficiency, and workforce development, and collectively contribute to the high-quality growth of marine fishery while supporting China’s goal of becoming a strong maritime nation.
Discuss Hot Topics:
Digital Technology Empowers the Transformation of Traditional Fishery
At the event, many experts, scholars, and industry professionals delivered keynote reports on pressing topics, including the role of digital technology in advancing fisheries equipment innovation, the theory and practice of smart fisheries in deep-sea aquaculture, and the current practices and future outlook of electric vessels.
Ou Xianwei, Director of the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhanjiang), emphasized that the shift of aquaculture to deeper waters is an inevitable trend, and the timing is ripe for the digitalization of the industry. “Data has become the fifth major production factor after land, labor, capital, and technology. The deep integration of the digital economy with the real economy will inject new vitality into traditional industries,” he noted. However, challenges such as incomplete deep-sea aquaculture systems, suboptimal aquaculture quality, and high operational risks continue to hinder high-quality development in marine fisheries. Ou proposed focusing on enhancing sensing technologies, solidifying digital foundations, streamlining digital linkages, building data centers, deepening intelligent learning, and improving automation to drive the high-quality development of smart fisheries.
“Digital technology serves as the foundation of smart fisheries,” stated Chen Zhixin, Deputy Director of the Fishery Machinery and Instrument Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences. He highlighted that smart fisheries, as a new stage in modern fisheries development, are increasingly becoming a key force in the transformation and upgrading of the fisheries industry and a new engine for China’s fishery modernization.
Although the digitization and automation of seafood processing in China have significantly improved, challenges such as uneven development and low levels of implementation persist. To address these issues and enable the transformation of traditional fisheries through digital technologies, Chen suggested digitized water environment control for efficient and sustainable aquaculture, acoustic digital technologies to enhance visibility in fishing operations, omnidirectional digital sonar and scientific fish-detection technologies to enable precise tracking, identification, and counting of fish stocks, holographic digital fishing technologies to facilitate selective and eco-friendly fishing, digital key technologies for seafood processing to drive breakthroughs in processing methods, integration of the “farming-fishing-processing” chain through digital innovation for highly efficient production.
Promoting Collaboration:
Multiple Agreement Signing Ceremonies Were Held on Site
On the day of the event, several signing ceremonies were also held. At the event, the Fujian Provincial Bureau of Ocean and Fisheries and the Fujian Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The China Fishing Vessel, Machinery, and Gear Industry Association entered into agreements with the Quanzhou Institute of Marine Bioresources Industry and Southeast Shipping Insurance Co., Ltd. Fujian Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China signed agreements with various enterprises, while the China Fishing Vessel, Machinery, and Gear Industry Association, together with the Fuzhou Marine Economy Science and Technology Innovation Hub, formalized cooperative agreements with resident enterprises and research institutions.
The Seminar on Smart Fishery and Equipment is a key component of the World Maritime Equipment Conference 2024. The event was hosted by the Fujian Provincial Bureau of Ocean and Fisheries and the Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government, with the organization by the China Fishing Vessel, Machinery, and Gear Industry Association and the China Center for Information Industry Development. (Reporter: Jiang Yachen)
