Chinese Yard Delivers DP-Capable Floating Fish Farm Ship

China's Jiangsu Dajin Heavy Industry Co. has delivered a unique world's first: a DP-capable, ship-shaped, cage-type aquaculture vessel for oceangoing service. The unusual ship design will be deployed off the coast of Naozhou Island, Zhanjiang, where it will be initially used to raise yellow croaker.

The new Zhanjiang Bay 1 is a "mobile marine ranch," according to Chinese state media. It is designed to raise multiple species within one fish farm, and has 12 separate production bays. Targeted production is estimated at 2,000-5,000 tonnes of fish, with "low" levels of energy consumption during operations.

The objective of making a ship-shaped, station-keeping fish farm is to expand aquaculture into deeper offshore waters, according to the operator. With all-electric propulsion and a DP system, plus onboard provisions for fish feed distribution, the vessel will be able to work further off the coast - and will be able to move to more sheltered waters when a storm system comes through. The ship is part of a push to develop a multi-billion-dollar "blue pastures" industry, a new way to add to China's domestic fish production without re-depleting domestic fisheries.

The Zhanjiang Bay 1 will be deployed far from disputed waters, but China's giant fish farms have caused tension elsewhere. In the Yellow Sea, two Chinese net cage structures have been installed in the South Korea-China Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ) - an area of indeterminate boundaries between the two countries. Earlier this year, South Korea’s National Assembly declared the net cage structures "a threat to maritime safety" and requested their removal, following an independent assessment that the structures could have dual-use applications for military surveillance.

The shipbuilder that delivered Zhangjiang Bay 1, Jiangsu Dajin - a division of Bestway Marine - is a comparatively new yard on the Yangtze with a specialty in construction vessels. It has delivered heavy lift crane vessels, deep-sea submersible support vessels, and pile-driving barges. At higher volume, it also produces handysize bulkers and 5,000 dwt multipurpose vessels used in coastwise trade.