Looking at Xinjiang along rivers and lakes: Cold water nurtures the "hot" industry
Recently, Xinjiang, located in the northwest inland of our country, has become popular again due to its abundant seafood harvest. Xinjiang has always been known as the "farthest place from the sea", but now it has achieved new breakthroughs in aquaculture, processing, and sales, and aquatic products have become the "new favorite" of the consumer market. This new phenomenon relies on the combination of technological application and innovative thinking.
In recent years, the Aksu region has fully relied on its water ecological advantages, integrated ecological resources such as mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, and grasses, and actively promoted the implementation of the "Fishery to Enrich the People" project. At present, the area of aquaculture in the region has reached 52000 acres, with a total aquaculture output of 21000 tons.
The reporter and his team walked into a breeding base of a company in Wensu County, where rows of fish ponds were arranged in an orderly manner. In the clear and bottomless fish pond, cold water fish swim freely in the water, and workers are skillfully fishing, sorting, weighing, and loading, creating a busy scene. Li Xing, a purchaser from Bachu County in Kashgar, told reporters that he is preparing to purchase tens of kilograms of aquatic products this time. "The restaurant mainly uses sturgeon over one kilogram in size, and many people recognize the aquatic products here. The market demand is gradually increasing." Company manager Gan Haiming said that the breeding farm has over 1000 orders so far, with a total amount of over 2 million yuan.
What are the tips for raising cold water fish? The most important thing is to need "live water". The company's aquaculture farm is located on the east bank of the Aksu River, and the water used comes from the natural river water that permeates the river. The fish pond is a series flow aquaculture farm. The front end of the fish pond is used for breeding salmon and fry, while the back end is used for breeding sturgeon. In the second half of this year, due to the continuous increase in market demand, more than 5000 fish fry were newly cultivated in the fishing grounds.
According to company technician Gan Liangwen, taking salmon as an example, fry must be farmed indoors. Generally, it takes about a year or two, or nearly one kilogram, before they are placed outdoors. When they grow to around 4-5 kilograms, they are sold, which takes about two to three years. At present, the excellent cold water fish varieties such as Siberian sturgeon, rainbow trout, and salmon cultivated by breeding farms have a sales market that radiates both inside and outside Xinjiang.
It is understood that Tuofuhan Town in Wensu County currently has nearly 10000 acres of fish ponds, which is one of the largest areas of concentrated aquaculture in the Aksu region. According to the yield of about 1.5 tons per mu of fish pond, the average net income per mu is over 3000 yuan, which not only meets the demand for aquatic products of various ethnic groups, but also drives a group of aquaculture practitioners to increase their income and become prosperous.
In addition to fish and aquatic products, the South American white shrimp produced in the Aksu region is also very popular. At the Runze Farm breeding base near the West Bridge in Aksu City, farmer Zhou Jingsen is salvaging South American white shrimp. Cages of South American white shrimp are dragged out of the water, bouncing around in plastic buckets, appearing crystal clear and fresh.
South American white shrimp belongs to sea shrimp, how can it be farmed inland? Zhou Jingsen explained, "Although South American white shrimp belongs to tropical shrimp, we have carried out desalination cultivation on it. Through continuous monitoring of water temperature and quality, we provide the most suitable conditions for the growth of South American white shrimp, maintain normal dissolved oxygen, ammonia nitrogen, and nitrite in the pond, and improve the survival rate of shrimp seedlings."
This is a typical industry that has achieved success through repeated experimentation. The cultivation of sea shrimp fry initially involves using sea salt to turn it into seawater, gradually desalination, and adapting the shrimp fry to local water quality. This has also made an attempt to develop and utilize the saline alkali water in southern Xinjiang and build a new ecological model for saline alkali water lake and pond aquaculture with Xinjiang characteristics. In 2021, Zhou Jingsen's breeding base produced over 200 kilograms per acre of land. He told reporters that he has raised two ponds and 16 acres of land this year, with an expected yield of 400 kilograms per unit. Nowadays, the South American white shrimp in the breeding base are sold on the spot, with excellent quality and highly favored by consumers.
