Guangdong cutting-edge marine tech reshapes blue economy

China's annual two sessions successfully concluded today. Among the key topics highlighted at the meeting, the marine economy stood out prominently, and deep-sea technology is expected to critically drive new quality productive forces over the next five years.

As a pioneer in marine development, Guangdong is accelerating its progress toward the deep sea, transforming its vast blue territory into fertile ground for high-tech innovation. Follow GO Guangdong as we dive into the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, with branches in Guangzhou, Zhuhai, and Zhanjiang, and witness how Guangdong's high-tech products are applied in deep ocean exploration.

Photo by 湛江日报

World's first floating, dynamically positioned aquaculture vessel

Amid increasing environmental demands for nearshore areas, the sustainable use of fishery resources, and growing ecological protection awareness, China's offshore aquaculture spatial structure is steadily being optimized. Zhanjiang Bay No.1 emerged under these circumstances as the world's first floating aquaculture platform with dynamic positioning.

Designed by the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (SML) in Zhanjiang, it incorporates numerous groundbreaking achievements. "This platform integrates intelligent aquaculture, multi-compartment experiments, green energy, and remote monitoring. Our ultimate goal is to create a model for refined aquaculture," said Lin Xiaojie, Project Manager of "Zhanjiang Bay No.1".

The pioneering aquaculture platform is designed for full-ocean operations at depths of up to 1,000 to 10,000 meters. It has a total length of 154 meters, a molded beam of 44 meters, and a molded depth of 24.25 meters. It has a max aquaculture draft of 20 meters and an aquaculture water volume of 80,000 cubic meters. "Zhanjiang Bay No.1" can float and cruise in all marine areas while conducting deep-sea aquaculture and features an annual production capacity of 2,000 tons of premium fish species.

This innovative platform represents a pivotal step in China's advancement of deep-sea aquaculture.

Photo by 人民日报, photographer Zhu Wen

World-leading marine unmanned facilities power ocean observation

Ocean data is the foundation of marine scientific research. On April 28, 2025, an 11-meter-long, 12-ton unmanned vessel was smoothly launched at a test dock in Zhuhai. This milestone marked a major breakthrough in China's marine intelligent unmanned equipment sector.

Named "Blue Whale", it is the world's first high-speed submersible unmanned surface vessel (USV), meaning a ship controlled without a crew onboard, capable of both traveling on the sea surface and submerging underwater. As a novel craft integrating a high-speed surface boat and an underwater submersible, it serves as a core component of the Intelligent Swift Ocean Observing System (ISOOS) project led by SML (Zhuhai).

The "Blue Whale" boasts a surface speed of 30 to 40 knots, a surface range of hundreds of kilometers, and the ability to dive and navigate at depths of tens of meters. It can remain suspended underwater for over a month, ready to respond to emergent missions at any time.

In the future, it will be deployed for underwater topographic mapping, sub-sea imaging, water sampling, and cable/pipeline inspection, providing invaluable first-hand data for China's ocean science exploration.

Chen Dake, the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the director of SML (Zhuhai), noted: "The era of marine big data has arrived. Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital twin, which means virtual models of real-world systems, are providing new tools and methods for oceanographic research and technological breakthroughs."

Photo by SML (Zhuhai)

Back in November 2023, the laboratory's Zhuhai Cloud, the world's first intelligent unmanned system research mother ship, completed China's longest autonomous navigation scientific expedition at the time, sailing from Zhuhai to Dalian.

Zhuhai Cloud is the world's first research vessel with autonomous navigation capabilities. Equipped with a globally pioneering straight-arm rotary crane, it can rapidly retrieve deployed unmanned vessels without stopping, which is an industry-leading innovation.

Intelligent systems for ocean observation, photo by SML (Zhuhai)

Looking forward, Zhuhai Cloud is expected to support more drones, underwater vehicles, and vessels such as the Blue Whale. By networking these intelligent systems, rapid, multidimensional scanning of targeted sea areas will enhance the efficiency of ocean observation.

Photo by SML (Guangzhou)

Towards mysterious ecosystems of deep-sea cold seeps

A cold seep is a seafloor phenomenon in which gases such as methane, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide seep into seawater due to geological or pressure changes. A cold seep ecosystem is a unique community in the dark deep sea, where organisms perform chemosynthesis using chemicals from seeps as an energy source. Guangdong has been conducting research on cold seeps, which helps locate combustible ice and oil and gas resources, while advancing frontiers in life and climate science

From June to July 2025, SML (Guangzhou) completed a phase of scientific expeditions to South China Sea cold seeps. The 27-day voyage focused on the core scientific topic "biodiversity and maintenance mechanisms of cold seep ecosystems." Scientists have conducted surveys across multiple active cold seep zones in China.

Photo by SML (Guangzhou)

The collected samples and data cover carbonate rocks, seawater at various depths, macro-organisms, and natural gas hydrates. All provide critical scientific evidence for biodiversity conservation in extreme deep-sea environments and support site selection for tropical marine national parks.

In November 2025, SML (Guangzhou), in partnership with the Guangdong Institute of Intelligent Unmanned System, successfully developed Haiqiang 7000, which is China's first 7,000-meter-class deep-sea remotely operated vehicle. During deep-sea and hadal sampling, researchers discovered diverse organisms, and collected magmatic rock from a depth of 5,000 meters.

Haiqiang 7000, photo by SML (Guangzhou)

The network of laboratories across Guangzhou, Zhuhai, and Zhanjiang serves as more than a research center; it acts as a future factory for the blue economy. Guangdong's significant advancements in comprehensive deep-sea operations deliver innovative Guangdong Solutions to global deep-sea exploration.

Reporter| Zhou Jiyin, Ding Hefei

Editor| Yin Juewen

Poster| Yang Chenyue