Scientists built a coral reef marine ranch in the Deep Sea Industry Hall of the Sanya Innovation and Development Exhibition, which is on display for the duration of the Boao Forum for Asia's annual conference. This shows Sanya's rich natural resources and environmental protection progress.

Chen Hong, the creator of this coral reef marine ranch and the director of the Hainan South China Sea Institute of Tropical Oceanography, introduced that this exhibition is an example of a new type of marine ranch. It is capable of cultivating a large number of corals and can sustain multiple plant and animal species such as fish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, abalone, and seaweed. Compared with traditional concrete reef marine ranches, this new coral reef ecosystem has a richer ecosystem, as well as higher ecological and economic values.

Chen went on to explain that it was very difficult to transport living coral and other marine organisms from Sanya. The team needed to establish a micro-ecosystem in an ecological tank, while controlling the salinity of water at 35 percent and the temperature at 24 - 26 C.

The team needed to continuously monitor the changes in water quality, and wait until the water state was stable before they could put fish and algae into the artificial water body. They also had to carry out high-tech processes such as protein separation, ultraviolet sterilization, and biofilter filtration, to keep the entire ecosystem balanced.

Currently, there are over 20 species of fish and over 30 species of other organisms in the exhibition tank, Chen added.

Chen said, "We hope to show domestic and foreign guests Sanya's rich natural resources and our country's accelerated technology development."

The coral reef marine ranch in the Deep Sea Industry Hall of the Sanya Innovation and Development Exhibition. [Photo/Sanya Daily]