Shanghai has launched the construction of five standard ecological aquaculture bases, as a means to transform its traditional aquaculture model.

A 20,000-mu ecological aquaculture area (roughly 1,330 hectares) will be completed during the 11th five-year-plan period, authorities announced yesterday.

A 300-mu eco-aquaculture base in Maogang town of Songjiang District is under construction, which will not pollute the environment by the closed inner circulation of pond water.

The base in Maogang town will form an ecological system, with 20 ponds with distinct functions such as seedling raising, prawn-farming, a fish pond and artificial wetland. To make it more scientific and environmentally sound, a fish disease control center and drug supervision center will be built.

The base reportedly employed a fishery design company to plan its scientific layout. They worked out the mild earth slope for the shrimp and a steep slope made of floor slabs for the fish. Under drains for the fish ponds will be changed to open channels, solving blockage and pollution issues.

Experts pointed out that controlling the quality of the water is vitally important. Fish and shrimp rely on purified water for better growth, so does the environment, therefore, the base plans to adopt the closed inner circulation by a 10-mu artificial wetland. Shanghai will explore a low-cost and highly efficient way to popularize the application of fishery wetlands.