How the big yellow croaker "swims" back to the people's table

Figure (1): Large yellow croaker farmers harvest fish on a modern fishing row in Guanjingyang, Ningde City
.

Photo courtesy
of Jiaocheng District Rong Media Center (2): A corner
of Sanduao Marine Aquaculture Base in Ningde City.

Photo by Liu Mingge (People's Vision)
Data source: Ningde Oceanic and Fisheries Bureau
This issue of the Coordinator: Bai Zhiyu

Big yellow croaker is a unique economic fish along the coast of China, and the Guanjing Yang Sea in Ningde City, Fujian Province is an important big yellow croaker in the inner bay spawning ground
.

From the overfishing in the sixties and seventies of the last century, which led to the precarious population of large yellow croaker, to 2021, the production of large yellow croaker in Ningde accounted for 80% of the total aquaculture in the country, and in the past few decades, with the unremitting efforts of government departments, scientific research institutions and fishermen, one by one, large yellow croaker has "swam" back to the people's table
.

—Editor

"The bait can't be less, which is equivalent to throwing 600,000 yuan into the sea every day!" On a fishing raft in Sanduao, Ningde, Fujian, Youweide, chairman of Sanduao Food Co.
, Ltd.
, introduced large-scale aquaculture to reporters, with pride in
fun.

Dozens of kilometers away at the Jinsheng Aquatic Products Company, workers skillfully "three go" (remove gills, belly, and scales) for large yellow croaker, and the prefabricated vegetable workshop is busy
.
You Xinling, executive deputy general manager of the company, said happily: "This kind of large yellow croaker used for pan-frying can sell more than 20 million pieces a year online!" ”

Big yellow croaker, also known as yellow croaker and cucumber fish, is a unique economic fish
along China's coast.
The Guanjing Ocean Sea area in Ningde City, surrounded by high mountains and as deep as a well, is an important large yellow croaker inner bay spawning ground
.
However, overfishing in the sixties and seventies led to a sharp decline in wild yellow croaker and the population was in jeopardy
.

Decades have passed suddenly, but the story of the big yellow fish has undergone new changes
.
According to the statistics of the Ningde municipal government, last year, the city's output of large yellow croaker was 191,000 tons, accounting for 80% of the total aquaculture in the country, with an output value of 6.
918 billion yuan
.
On the Chinese table, 8 out of every 10 large yellow croakers come from Ningde
.
The big yellow croaker "swims" back to the people's table, how did the change appear?

Scientific breeding

The protection of germplasm resources is the basis for the development of industries

To revive an economic fish, you first need enough fry
.
Weng Huasong, director of the R&D department of Fufa Fisheries Company, pointed to a picture that every year during the high tide in May and June, fish swim into their birthplaces to breed in the footsteps of their parents, and then the big fish are scattered nearby and shallow in the sea to feed
.
After autumn, when the inshore currents recede, fish migrate south and offshore for wintering
.

"Totoaba, represented by large yellow croakers, are more sensitive to sound, and hearing the knocking sound will produce otolith resonance
.
" Weng Huasong said that around the 60s, local fishermen used a "knock-on pop" method, constantly tapping bamboo boards tied to their boats to drive fish schools to fish, "plus the wintering ground round-up, during that time, the resources of large yellow croaker were almost exhausted
.
" ”

So, a group of researchers took up the burden of artificial rehabilitation, trying to pull the big yellow croaker back
from the "endangered list".
Liu Jiafu, then head of the Ningde Fisheries Technology Extension Station, led the breeding of a small number of fish fry in 1987, but due to lack of funds and other reasons, the breeding work was at risk
of being abandoned halfway.
At the end of 1988, after understanding the situation, the Ningde Prefectural Party Committee vigorously supported the work of cage aquaculture of precious marine fish and organized scientific research to tackle key problems
.
In July 1991, the technology of batch breeding of large yellow croaker was successful, and the research results were gradually extended to more farmers
.

At Fufa Fisheries Company's national large yellow croaker original breeding farm, Weng Huasong carefully observed the seed fish
in the large round pond.
The fish are specially caught from the wild to domesticate and select, a total of several thousand
.
"Fish caught in the wild begin to eat only raw foods such as small trash fish and oysters, and then gradually get used to eating granular bait, and the adaptation process takes at least a few months
.
Wild catch one or two small fish, raise broodstock (reproductive fish), that is, 800 grams of female fish and more than 600 grams of male fish, will begin to spawn and reproduce
.
”

After unremitting efforts, the recovery of the large yellow croaker population has made a good start, and a large number of artificially bred large yellow croaker fry have been released into the
sea.
Data show that since 2020, Ningde City has accumulated 1.
254 billion fish fry and released fish, and on June 6 this year, the national "Fish Release Day", more than 3.
3 million large yellow croaker fry jumped into the sea from Sandu Town
.

In addition to restoring the population, people also have new ideas
in terms of breeding and upgrading varieties.
Ke Qiaozhen, a postdoctoral fellow who does research and development in Fufa Aquatic Products Company, pointed to a set of new devices and told reporters that large yellow croakers like to swim against the water, this equipment can use a pump to control the water flow, imitating the offshore environment, equivalent to the "treadmill" of fish, which can simultaneously monitor the swimming ability and behavior of a large number of fry, and select good seedlings
suitable for growing in the deep sea and with strong disease resistance.

"The practice of Ningde shows that the protection of germplasm resources is the basis for the development of
industry.
" Weng Huasong, who is also the experimental secretary of the State Key Laboratory of Large Yellow Croaker Breeding, said
.

Operation Clear Sea

The concept of using the sea in accordance with the law and using the sea with certificates is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people

Good seedlings also need good water rearing
.
In order to clear the sea, Ningde also carried out a maritime innovation
.

Jiaocheng, Fu'an, Xiapu and Fuding under the jurisdiction of Ningde City have a total coastline of 1,046 kilometers
.
In previous years, there was a boom in various types of aquaculture
.
Extensive aquaculture and disorderly expansion have produced a large amount of sea drifting garbage, the water quality has deteriorated, and the marine ecological environment has seriously deteriorated
.

It must be forcefully rectified! In July 2018, the Ningde Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government began to comprehensively carry out comprehensive improvement of the sea surface and the transformation and upgrading
of the aquaculture industry.
So far, a total of 1,427,300 old-style fishing rafts have been removed and upgraded, 106,000 tons of sea drifting garbage and 5.
38 million
foam floats have been removed.

Ningde has achieved remarkable results in rectifying the chaos of marine aquaculture, and Ruan Jing, director of the rectification office of Ningde Marine and Fisheries Bureau, is deeply moved
.

"Previous law enforcement, mainly promoted by a single department, could not form a synergy
.
In the face of some illegal farmers, the strength is insufficient
.
Ruan Jing said that this time, the city has changed the past fishery department's "one line" promotion into "one net" overall promotion
.
For example, Jiaocheng District gathers personnel from various townships and departments to adopt the method of "dragnet, full coverage, and daily cleaning" to carry out operations
.

Two years later, the coastal landscape changed radically, and a new order for marine aquaculture was established
.
Chen Hongqing, head of the fishery section of the Ningde Marine and Fisheries Bureau, said that previously, the ownership of the use of the sea area was not clear, and "who occupies and who uses"
.
After "Qinghai", the city's sea area was re-divided into prohibited areas, breeding areas and restricted breeding areas, strictly according to grid management, from the system to solve the problem of "where to raise, what to raise, how much to raise, how to raise", so far, the city has issued more than 10,000 aquaculture certificates, which clearly list the latitude and longitude and area
of permitted breeding.

The upgrading of aquaculture facilities is also in
full swing.
"We have adopted the method of mass reconstruction and government subsidies to guide the cages to be 'small to large' and 'big to deep', and 3,450 deep-water large cages have been built, with a more scientific and reasonable layout, and wide channels and intervals reserved to ensure smooth water flow exchange
.
" Huang Shaoyuan, researcher of Ningde Marine and Fisheries Bureau, said that there are 440,000 ecological cages in the city, and for this purpose, more than
4.
5 billion yuan has been invested at the provincial, municipal and county levels.

Before the renovation, an old-style cage was 4 meters deep, 4 meters
long and 4 meters wide.
Now each mouth is 12 meters deep, 26 meters long and 26 meters wide, and there is a deep sea water under the box, and the fish inhabit the living water
.
"I used to have 600 small cages, but I replaced them all and used new environmentally friendly plastic fishing rafts, and my income nearly doubled
in one year.
" Huang Zongrong, a farmer in Qixing Village, Xiapu County, said
.

"The reform of marine aquaculture has broken and established, but later everyone found that after the reform, their own interests are more secure, the benefits of planning aquaculture are more, and there is no resistance
.
" Nowadays, the concept of using the sea according to law and using the sea with certificates is deeply rooted in the hearts
of the people.
Huang Shaoyuan said
.

"Qinghai" is more powerful, and there are surprises
in development.
Although the overall aquaculture area has decreased, the production and quality of aquatic products such as large yellow croaker have both increased
.
Not only that, the Chinese white dolphin, which is extremely picky about the ecological environment, has recently appeared frequently in the waters of eastern Fujian after disappearing for more than 20 years
.

Smart farming

Technological means to operate "sea ranching"

In the waters of Sanduao Baiji Bay, the reporter saw the deep-water wind-resistant plastic breeding platform
built by Sanduao Food Co.
, Ltd.
84 large cages, each one acre square, 9 red-roofed houses dotted around, boardwalks connected, forming a beautiful "sea ranch" map
.

Song Xiangguo, the head of the breeding base who has been in the industry for 26 years, said: "In the past, small cages were used, and the passage was made of foam floats on bamboo poles and boards, and I often fell into the water
.
The current boardwalk is more than 2 meters wide, and you can run
on it.
Previously fed on the shoulder, it can now be piped
.
On the platoon, we tended to the fish while blowing air conditioners and making tea
.
The 5G mobile phone signal is connected to the smart monitoring pole, and the fishing
raft can be checked in the living room.
”

"The electricity was pulled from the shore?"

"No, that's troublesome and dangerous
.
Now there are photovoltaic panels and wind turbines built on the fishing rafts, which use wind when there is wind, use light when there is light, and electricity can be stored and supplied
day and night.
”

The reporter stood on the red roof and looked around, and saw that there were 4 landscape wind turbines standing on the power generation room, plus solar photovoltaic devices, which were connected to the energy storage cabinet and the transformer
.
There is also a seawater desalination system on the roof, which uses the principle of photothermal distillation to provide domestic water
.

Offshore renovation and upgrading, some villages just help farmers to demolish the old and build new ones on the spot, the results are still scattered
.
Ninghai Village, Baishi Town, chose to recover all the sea surface and plan for rectification
in a unified manner.
The two village committees organized the establishment of companies, used loans and subsidies to renovate fishing rafts, and then leased them to farmers
.

Gong Xianliang, the skinny village party secretary, is a doer who moved his office to a
continuous fishing raft.
"In the past, we were a group of begging for small seas, and the villagers would raise yellow croaker very early, but they were not rich
.
Now the water quality is better, the income from aquaculture is higher, 90% of the farmers in the village have bought houses in the city, and the village collective has assets of more than 40 million yuan
.
The villagers paid health insurance, and the village gave half a mile
.
Gong Xianliang said
.

Wang Yu, a farmer, took a speedboat to show reporters his fishing rafts, and he rented 576 cages
from the village.
Lao Wang, who used to be a village doctor, was the first to raise large yellow croaker in the village and has accumulated rich experience
.
He said that if the water temperature is higher than 27 degrees Celsius, the incidence of fish is high, and it is necessary to detect and intervene
in time.
Moreover, it is best to sell fish in November and December, when the fish is fattest
.

Another farmer, Lin Zongqing, took over the conversation: "Raising a box of good fish depends on technology and experience
.
The government is controlling density, and we are controlling
it ourselves.
When the fish grows up, it is necessary to divide the boxes in time; The fishing net will be dirty after a long time, and polyculture will be much
cleaner.
”

On the fishing rafts, there are
constant new things.
In view of the difficulty of fish disease consultation, Ningde has established a city-level "marine green aquaculture technology service platform" (fishery general hospital), and fishery hospitals and service stations have been built in counties and villages to form a fish disease prevention and control network
.

Walking into the fishery hospital in the "sea community" of Baijiwan, I saw a farmer with fish in the reception room, the inspector in the laboratory observed with a microscope, and an expert was conducting remote consultation
on the computer.
Senior engineer Huang Guangliang told reporters: "We are from the main hospital, usually mainly patrolling at sea, and today we came to the fishing raft for consultation
.
”

Industry added value

The integration of three industries drives high-quality development

At the Sanduao fishing raft, Lao Zheng, a salesman of the food company, told reporters: "The logistics is very convenient, we catch fish at night, and it can be delivered to Fuzhou in the early morning of the next day, and it can be listed
in fresh markets in many places in China on the same day.
" ”

In addition to selling fresh fish, large yellow croaker is a treasure, fish meat, roe, swim bladder, fish bones, each has its own use
.
After the cage was changed to a deeper and larger size, the fish strips became more beautiful and the meat quality was firmer, which captured the taste buds
of more Chinese people.
Use fish brain stones as medicinal herbs, and extract biopharmaceutical ingredients from fish scales.
.
.
People continue to find more value in large yellow croaker, develop new products, and deep processing brings considerable added value
.

In recent years, Ningde City has continuously improved the industrial chain of large yellow croaker, from seedlings, breeding, processing to cold chain transportation and brand marketing, and has become an industry
with an output value of 10 billion yuan.
The city has 6 national-level agricultural industrialization leading enterprises and 28 provincial-level agricultural industrialization leading enterprises
.
Deep-water raised fish, after being inspected and certified by the Municipal Fisheries Association, can be uniformly marketed under the brand of "deep-water melon"
.
The big yellow croaker also "swam" on the Internet
.
Some fishermen have opened up channels such as live broadcast and new media to expand sales channels, and brands such as "Sandu Port" in Jiaocheng and "Father and Son" in Xiapu have emerged
.

At present, online shopping for pre-made dishes is booming, and some companies have developed a series of
dishes in time.
Jinsheng Aquatic Products Company operates the whole industrial chain of aquatic products from breeding, deep processing to sales, with an annual output value of more than 1 billion yuan and an export income of 120 million US dollars
.
The reporter saw in the workshop that the workers were busy making pre-made dishes
such as fish squid, chopped pepper yellow fish, sour soup yellow fish, de-pierced yellow fish fillet, and fragrant yellow fish.
Cai Haiying, manager of the company's export department, introduced that the export of processed products to South Korea and Japan is the largest; Frozen fish is selling well in the northern market, one of which is put in the gift box of supermarkets, with an annual sales of 30 to 40 million yuan
.

The sound of the waves is surging, and the fish are cheerful
.
Nowadays, fishermen in Sanduao, in addition to raising fish and selling fish, can also "sell seascapes", Fu'an's Xiabaishi, Xiapu Qixing, Qiuzhu in Jiaocheng, Fuding's Anren and other new fishing villages, the water is clear and beautiful, people have built beautiful sea guesthouses on fishing rafts, embarked on a new development path of fishery and tourism integration
.
Sanduao's "water town fishing village" style attracted nearly 300,000 tourists during the National Day holiday in 2021 alone
.

When the reporter left the Baiji Bay fishing raft, Yuweid walked a long boardwalk to the berth to see him off
.
From 50 simple cages to more than 8,000 ecological cages, he has led more than 2,000 surrounding fishermen to increase their income
by raising large yellow croaker.
In the distance is his hometown of Erdu Village, where he has been ploughing waves for decades and has a soft
spot for the water and soil.
"With a good ecology, the quality improves quickly!" We must protect the ocean and manage it well
.
With the promotion of the government and the conscious action of our farmers, the big yellow croaker industry in eastern Fujian will definitely be more prosperous! Youvid said
.

(Even Jintian)