World's First Self-Propelled Enclosed Salmon Farming Vessel "Su Hai 1" Delivered in Guangzhou
Souce: Chinanews
China reaches milestone in ocean-going salmon farming
The world's first self-propelled closed salmon farming vessel "Suhai No. 1" was delivered in Nansha, Guangzhou on June 26, 2025, marking the beginning of China's move towards a new era of deep-sea salmon farming, and heralding that China's seafood consumption market will greatly reduce its dependence on imported chilled salmon in the future.
"Suhai No. 1": A sea monster
"Suhai No. 1" was designed by the Institute of Fishery Machinery and Instruments of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences and built by China Shipbuilding Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. The construction of the ship started at the end of 2023 and completed comprehensive sea trials in April 2025.
"Suhai No. 1" is 249.8 meters long, 45 meters wide, 21.6 meters deep, with 83,000 cubic meters of aquaculture water and a displacement of 132,000 tons. After stable operation, the annual salmon farming volume can reach more than 8,000 tons.
"Suhai No. 1" is a type of offshore intelligent aquaculture equipment that integrates the functions of breeding, fishing and processing high-value fish species. It is the practice and exploration of new quality productivity under the deep integration of marine fishery breeding technology and ship engineering technology. Unlike the previous fixed deep-water intelligent cage breeding, "Suhai No. 1" has the characteristics of cruising production. In the face of adverse environments such as typhoons and red tides, it can quickly move to safe waters with its own strong navigation ability, thereby greatly improving the safety and stability of aquaculture. After being put into operation, the ship will sail to the cold water mass waters of the Yellow Sea to meet the suitable water temperature requirements for salmon growth (10℃~18℃).
It is reported that the ship's 15 cabins are closed and centralized, which can realize the intelligent centralized control and management of the five elements of "water, oxygen, feed, light, and pollution" aquaculture, providing the most suitable growth environment for salmon. The ship can also realize the uninterrupted exchange of the water in the cabin with the natural seawater outside through the water exchange system to ensure the freshness and cleanliness of the aquaculture water. By adjusting the water inlet pressure, it can meet the needs of different fish species and different growth stages for water flow speed.
"Suhai No. 1": intelligent aquaculture equipment
The ship is also equipped with a series of advanced aquaculture equipment such as aquaculture environment monitoring, centralized automatic feeding, and integrated ship-shore management and control. In addition, "Suhai No. 1" also integrates cutting-edge technologies such as industrial automation, informatization and intelligence, which can simulate the best growth conditions of salmon in the natural environment to ensure its healthy and rapid growth.
"Suhai No. 1": Guarantee of salmon mass production
From the entry and feeding of fry to the catching, processing and transportation, "Suhai No. 1" is like an offshore salmon farming and processing plant. The world's leading salmon automated processing workshop on board can realize the automated assembly line operation of fresh and refrigerated processing of fish products, and deliver extremely fresh products to major consumer markets in China within 24 hours at the fastest. It has the advantage of continuous aquaculture throughout the year. By rationally planning the aquaculture area and time, it can achieve staggered listing, which can not only greatly increase production capacity and provide the market with a stable and sufficient supply of salmon, but also effectively avoid the risk of market price fluctuations.