Sea cucumber farming has high profits but high risks - this is the consensus reached by farmers in Dongying Hekou Ecological Fishery Zone.

On June 11, the reporter came to the ecological fishery area of ​​Dongying City. Under the numerous wind turbines, there were square breeding ponds. "Before 2013, this was a land tidal flat. After development, there is now a sea cucumber breeding area of ​​60,000 mu." Suo Changming, deputy director of the Hekou Marine Fisheries Bureau, said.

Sun Chengsheng from Yantai is the first batch of farmers attracted after the establishment of the breeding area. "A total of 5 breeding ponds, with a total scale of 200 mu, can produce more than 50,000 catties of adults and seedlings a year." He told reporters that before coming to Dongying, he had raised sea cucumbers in Muping, Yantai for seven or eight years. Is a breeding professional household. There are more than 20 sea cucumber seedling breeding areas separated by a net in the middle of his breeding pond, and the large sea cucumbers are free-range. In order to add nutrients to the sea cucumber seedlings, Sun Chengsheng specially bought 300 yuan per ton of sea mud from Penglai Long Island.

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On the evening of the 10th, there was a heavy rain in the coastal area in the north of Dongying, which made Sun Chengsheng worried. The high risk of sea cucumber farming is partly due to the high water quality requirements of sea cucumbers, including salinity, temperature, etc. "Sea cucumbers live in seawater with a salinity of about 3%. Too much rain will reduce the salinity, which is not conducive to the growth of sea cucumbers." Sun Chengsheng told reporters.

Abundant unused land resources are the biggest advantage of the Yellow River Delta. According to the "Development Plan for High-efficiency Ecological Economic Zone in the Yellow River Delta", the Yellow River Delta has 8.11 million mu of unused land, accounting for about 33% of the province's unused land, including 2.71 million mu of saline-alkali land, 1.48 million mu of barren grassland, and tidal flats encouraged by the state to develop. 2.12 million mu, and another shallow sea area of ​​nearly 15 million mu. 89.7% of these unused lands are concentrated along the coast of the Bohai Sea.

"We started to develop coastal areas on a large scale in 2013, and now it has reached 1 million mu." Suo Changming told reporters that the sea and land are 500,000 mu each, including 200,000 mu of sea cucumber farming and 200,000 mu of three-dimensional farming on land. And the original salt pond of 100,000 mu, the real use of the unused land.

After all, it is not a natural habitat. The water in the aquaculture pond does not flow like sea water, and the water must be changed frequently to ensure the growth of sea cucumbers. In this regard, Hekou Huachun Aquatic Technology Development Co., Ltd. has adopted innovative measures: building a 200-mu reservoir simultaneously with the sea cucumber breeding pond. The algae such as benthic diatoms cultivated in the pond are more evenly flushed into the breeding pond as sea cucumber feed, and the seawater can also play a buffering role when the water quality is poor, so that it will not flow directly into the breeding pond.

"Some farmers from Liaoning come here to contract sea cucumber breeding ponds, and their method of changing the water at the natural high tide of Liaoning beaches is not very useful here. The water in Liaoning is clear, and the waters of Laizhou Bay in the north of Dongying are shallow and thin beaches, and the water enters when the tide is high. It is muddy water, and it is easy to form sediment deposition in the pool, which is not good for sea cucumbers." Xie Xiuchun, general manager of Huachun Company, said.

With the support of Dr. Yang Jianmin from the Provincial Institute of Marine Resources and Environment, Huachun has built a 50,000-square-meter factory nursery greenhouse, which can cultivate more than 100,000 catties of seed each year. In addition to its own use, it is also sold to surrounding farmers. "In the past, some free-range farmers bought seedlings where they could buy them cheaply, but now I gradually understand that the cheap sea cucumber seedlings have weak disease resistance and weak vitality, and the sea cucumber seedlings cultivated in other places are not suitable for the water quality of Dongying, which also leads to The survival rate is not high." Xie Xiuchun introduced.

Currently, Huachun is considering integrating retail investor resources. "If our sea cucumber seed can increase the output, we will choose more than 20 farmers and let them get the seed for free. When the sea cucumber is one year old, we will buy it at a fixed price, and we will continue to grow the sea cucumber, because one year old. The survival rate of large sea cucumbers is high, and there is no risk in retail farming, and the risks will be controlled through the company's advanced farming technology and equipment in the later stage." Xie Xiuchun put forward his idea to the reporter, and the company provides free training, technical guidance, and disease prevention to cooperative households. At present, the company's water quality testing equipment has been completed, and this year it is ready to apply for the establishment of an independent research institute.

Huachun’s approach is representative but still insufficient. The unutilized land resources of the estuary are the most abundant in the Yellow Triangle, but the local sea cucumbers are still struggling in the low-level form of farming - salvaging - selling for money. "We are very short of sea cucumber deep processing enterprises. Such enterprises invest a lot in the early stage. Because of the high value of sea cucumbers, farmers require cash transactions; on the other hand, the payback period is long. Aggregation effect." Suo Changming said.

Although the sea cucumber is good, local farmers say that its popularity is far less than that of the Yellow River estuary hairy crab. "The current market price of sea cucumbers is around 50 yuan, which has dropped by more than half from the peak period. The price of 'popular' requires strong investment capital rather than speculative capital." Suo Changming believes.

"Relying on the investment and financing platform of the Yellow River Delta Industrial Investment Fund in our province, attracting large social capital into the development and unused land will be the future development direction." said Bo Chunxin, director of the Yellow River Delta Office of Hekou District.