With a land area of 1,440 square kilometers and a vast sea area of 20,800 square kilometers, Zhoushan in Zhejiang Province, perched on the coast of the East China Sea, presents a striking contrast between its tiny landmass and its expansive waters. Prosperity through the sea cannot be achieved without vessels to navigate it.

Currently, Zhejiang's first Antarctic krill fishing and processing vessel, the "Yongli," is about to set sail for Antarctica. The complete set of intelligent and automated Antarctic krill fishing equipment aboard the vessel all comes from Zhoushan-based local enterprise Jiesheng Marine Engineering Equipment Co., Ltd. Previously, domestic intelligent Antarctic krill fishing equipment relied mainly on imports. Starting from scratch, Jiesheng Marine successively overcame key technologies such as low-temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, and automatic coordination, and independently developed a constant-tension intelligent control algorithm, achieving the localization of intelligent and automated Antarctic krill fishing equipment. "Intelligence is the blue ocean of the vessel market," said Zhu Linsen, a senior engineer at Jiesheng Marine. Compared with traditional trawling operations, the "Yongli" adopts a dual-truss trawling method on both sides of the stern and a continuous pump-suction fishing approach, enabling uninterrupted fishing operations and greatly improving operational efficiency and product quality.

Building well also requires repairing well. In the ship maintenance segment, hull rust removal has always been a persistent challenge. Traditional manual methods carry high safety risks, low construction efficiency, and dust and wastewater bring relentless environmental pressure. Today, intelligent equipment is offering new solutions. At Zhejiang Shihe Technology Co., Ltd., a ship rust removal robot can be seen firmly adhering to the hull surface, with rust peeling away layer by layer wherever the nozzle sweeps, restoring the metal luster of the steel plates. A vacuum recovery device simultaneously sucks away wastewater and waste residue, achieving "rust removal without dust." For a hull area of 20,000 square meters, manual work previously required three days, but now the robot needs only 24 hours. "Not only is it safe and green, but efficiency is also greatly improved," said Zhang Zhilin, the company's technical director. At present, Shihe Technology's ship rust removal robots are used in more than 100 large shipyards at home and abroad, having completed rust removal operations on over a thousand large cargo ships.

Marine equipment engineering is accelerating toward intelligence and green development, propelling vessels to forge ahead from coastal waters to the open ocean. And the exploration of the ocean is now diving from the surface into the depths of the seabed. In the exhibition hall of the Donghai Laboratory, an unremarkable black stone is on display. This is a manganese nodule retrieved from a depth of 5,000 meters in the Mussau Trench of the Western Pacific by the laboratory's independently developed 6,000-meter-class hydraulic ROV drilling rig. Nan Liwen, associate researcher at the laboratory's Marine Robotics Center, explained that the deep sea is a "rich mine" awaiting exploitation, with oil, gas, and precious metal reserves far exceeding those on land. Venturing into the deep sea not only serves scientific research but also relates to national strategy. Accelerating breakthroughs in cutting-edge deep-sea equipment technology, a series of "deep-sea sharp tools" have been incubated one after another — a super-large-scale complete machine service capability testing device for deep-sea equipment, moving the "safety checkup" of deep-sea equipment from sea trials to land; an ultra-long-range land-sea vertical takeoff and landing heavy-lift aircraft capable of completing heavy cargo delivery and rapid response in extreme sea conditions, remote islands and reefs, and runway-free environments; and a 6,000-meter-class deep-sea special operations robot that can go deep into the seabed to carry out remote automated salvage and repeatable rapid deployment of targets.

The key to growing the marine economy lies in science and technology. In recent years, Zhoushan has actively built a "1+2+2" marine science and technology innovation platform system, promoting the full chain integration of scientific and technological achievements from basic research to industrial transformation. Donghai Laboratory, the Ship and Marine Engineering Innovation Center, the Marine Biomanufacturing Pilot Platform... innovation carriers are growing vigorously one after another, gathering talent, resources, and the confidence to advance toward the deep blue.

The symphony of ocean and technology is a profound gaze into the future. Daring to venture into "new frontiers" and daring to scale "commanding heights," Zhoushan is accelerating the innovative transformation of marine scientific and technological achievements, riding the waves forward across the vast and boundless blue ocean.