Nurturing pearl clams | During summer practice, they put on water pants, and the only freshwater pearl technology small courtyard in the country with over 40 degrees Celsius freshwater | National | Small Courtyard
[Editor's note]
Read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles. Every summer, millions of young people from communities, factories and mines, and fields in universities are active in urban and rural areas across the country. The summer social practice of college students has become an excellent opportunity for them to step out of the campus, understand the national situation, and serve society. Starting today, a journalist from Liberation Daily and Shangguan News will bring a series of "Summer Practice Times" for young students in Shanghai to see how they integrate knowledge and action.
Nurturing pearls may be difficult for pearl mussels; Nurturing pearls is equally difficult for new farmers. As the largest clam seedling breeding base in China, Wuyi, Zhejiang has the only freshwater pearl technology courtyard in the country, with a maximum temperature of 41 ℃ by the pond. And a group of college students from Shanghai, like pearl farmers, are wearing underwear and using their expertise to support agriculture. The sweat on their youthful faces sparkles like pearls.
This summer practice team from the "Water" Science and Technology Academy of the School of Aquaculture and Life at Shanghai Ocean University is the only national demonstration team selected for the "Three Down to the Countryside" social practice activity for college and vocational students in the country, and the "Duxing Plan" special action for rural revitalization. This summer, they will go to Wuyi County, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, which is the production, education, and research base of Shanghai Ocean University. Under the guidance of Professor Bai Zhiyi, they collaborated with local enterprises to provide technical support services to surrounding farmers without any fees, thresholds, or time differences, producing multiple excellent varieties and increasing the county's rate of excellent varieties.
[Women in the water don't give way to men's eyebrows]
It's time to check the mother clam regularly again. After 10 o'clock in the morning, the local temperature will quickly rise to nearly 40 degrees, and it will no longer be suitable for long-term outdoor work. So, on a summer morning, the thin and weak girl Mao Yingrui put on her seven or eight pound panties, raced against time to go down to the pond to check the maturity of the mother clam eggs, stepped on the muddy bottom of the pond, and picked up the mother clams from the breeding box.
At school, wearing lab clothes, she is a research expert in the laboratory; In the countryside, wearing panties, she is the pioneer of technology support for agriculture in Tangzhong. She said that the sky always brightens very early here. If there is no wind at night, the lower layer of water in the pond will generate a lot of "oxygen debt". In addition, algae will also compete for oxygen in the pond. Once the temperature rises, the solubility of oxygen will decrease, posing a threat to the health of the fish and clams farmed in the pond: "At times, their growth will be affected, and at worst, they will die, or even be completely destroyed."
[Room temperature is even higher than outside]
As a senior student, Li Changzhi, a graduate student at the School of Fisheries and Life Sciences, is collecting sperm from male clams to prepare for future research on cultivating clam seedlings. "This is my 136th day at Wuyi Danshui Pearl Technology Academy. Wuyi supplies nearly 85% of the country's freshwater pearl clam seedlings," said Li while operating in a simple bungalow built by the pond.
In a bungalow without ventilation equipment, due to limited conditions and the absence of facilities such as air conditioning and test benches, the indoor temperature can sometimes even be higher than outside with the help of the indoor experimental refrigerator's thermal cycle. However, even though beads of sweat as big as beans slid down from the face and soaked the experimental gloves with sweat, the students at the Science and Technology Academy still focused on collecting, filtering, counting and analyzing operations. Li Changzhi said, "As long as the experimental conditions are met, even in harsh environments, as students majoring in agricultural science, we must persist because only by going to the side of farmers and experiencing production practice firsthand can we better assist in rural revitalization."
【 High temperature greenhouse takes care of babies 】
Baby clams always need extra care. For seedling cultivation, greenhouse temperature is particularly crucial. By warming up the greenhouse in advance, the mother clam can mature faster and prepare for the development of the clam seedlings in advance. In summer, the temperature inside the greenhouse can reach over 50 degrees Celsius. Due to the temperature difference between the inside and outside, the mist is shrouded, and there are occasional mosquitoes and ants searching for food.
The students of the Science and Technology Academy are working in the shed to pour the seedlings into the pond. They often dry up for over an hour with their headlights on, and without exception, their clothes are soaked in sweat when they leave the shed. Through learning and practicing at the Science and Technology Academy base, we have acquired more solid breeding skills and brought the learned breeding and seedling skills to Anhui, Shandong and other places to complete various artificial breeding of freshwater shellfish. As a graduate student, Wang Hao, worked almost every day on the work of pouring down the pond in the shed. He saw the clam seedlings growing day by day, and his classmates slept very sweetly every day.
Emergency transfer of juveniles at night
As the only undergraduate student in the practice team, aquaculture student Yan Bingxin and his senior brothers and sisters live in a small courtyard, sharing joys and sorrows. At present, the Science and Technology Academy has trained more than 80 master's and doctoral students in aquaculture engaged in the research and development of freshwater pearls.
The integration of knowledge and action inevitably leads to minor incidents. "Why is the water leaking from the temporary breeding pool for yellow catfish?" At 8:30 pm, the duty personnel at the base interrupted the practice team members who were having dinner. Originally, as the larvae of the clam, the hookworm larvae needed to parasitize on the gills of the yellow catfish for a brief week. If the yellow catfish was not urgently rescued at this time, tens of thousands of clam fry may have no bones left. The students in the courtyard immediately put down their bowls and chopsticks and joined the battle. At night, the fields were pitch black, and it was necessary to transport fish in buckets with headlights on. There was still a long way from the temporary breeding pool to the target pool, but fortunately, there was a local acquaintance of a big yellow dog accompanying them, giving the team members some inner peace.
【 National review of new products entering farmers 】
"The prices of the first batch of seedlings this year were not high, but from the second batch, there was a slight increase in prices. I am still optimistic about the market and believe that the value of freshwater pearls will gradually become more prominent," said the farmer to Wang Hao during a field visit. Since the adoption of early propagation technology, commercial seedlings can be produced as early as late April, achieving a breakthrough in reproducing two batches of clam seedlings per year, in response to the booming market demand. "We also hope that the experts and students of the Science and Technology Academy can bring us more high-quality seeds."
"Using water as a medium" to provide technical support for farmers and innovate technology promotion models. The reporter from Jiefang Daily's Shangguan News learned that the "Shenzi 1" and "Shenzhe 3" triangular sail clams jointly cultivated by Wuyi Danshui Pearl Technology Academy and Wuyi Weimin Aquaculture Co., Ltd., two new national approved aquatic species, have entered the homes of many farmers and significantly improved the quality of freshwater pearl clams.
