The Ministry of Natural Resources recently released the marine economic performance for the first half of the year. Preliminary estimates show that China’s gross marine product reached 5.5 trillion yuan in H1, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%. Scientific and technological innovation has markedly accelerated its capacity to empower high-quality development of the marine economy.
In recent years, China has accelerated the deployment of an integrated air-sea-subsea intelligent equipment system. A matrix of homegrown intelligent equipment centered on maritime drones, unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), manned submersibles and unmanned submersibles has taken shape. It has built a three-dimensional perception and operation chain spanning “air – sea surface – underwater – deep abyss”. Powered by artificial intelligence, the system deeply empowers marine industries and establishes a fully covered, independently controllable marine three-dimensional security network. Intelligent equipment replaces human operations in extremely high-risk marine environments, building a solid safety barrier for the high-quality development of marine industries.
Aerial drones serve as cutting-edge perception carriers for marine observation and monitoring. In emergencies such as offshore oil spills, man overboard incidents and vessel loss of control, drones can rapidly reach target sea areas, transmit real-time data on oil spill spread and coordinates of personnel and vessels, and deliver emergency supplies, filling the gap in early-stage observation of traditional rescue operations.
Today, drones fitted with high-definition cameras, infrared thermal imagers and high-volume loudspeaker systems leverage a low-altitude intelligent networked platform to deliver closed-loop management: detection → identification → expulsion → evidence collection. Operators compare Automatic Identification System (AIS) data with live footage to accurately lock onto “ghost ships” that turn off AIS signals. The system assigns the nearest drone for on-site warning and expulsion, retaining high-definition video evidence throughout the whole process to form a complete digital archive chain, which provides solid support for subsequent law enforcement.
Meanwhile, another vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fixed-wing drone flies along subsea pipelines toward the open sea, feeding live footage back to the low-altitude intelligent networked platform. A conventional tugboat takes more than four hours to inspect a 70-plus-kilometer subsea pipeline, while the drone completes the task in less than one hour. Equipped with AI recognition algorithms, the drone automatically marks pipeline anomalies and transmits data to the platform in real time. Behind this capability lies an invisible “protection network”: China’s independently developed marine meteorological forecasting products deliver refined 6-hour interval forecasts for the next 10 days. The system selects safe flight windows precisely, enabling drones to return safely before sea conditions deteriorate.
In scenarios including offshore wind power, port waterways and meteorological observation, unmanned surface vehicles work in tandem with underwater robots to form a dual-layer monitoring system: rapid surface scanning + detailed underwater verification, safeguarding round-the-clock safety of offshore production and operations. Since 2025, multiple marine intelligent equipment achievements have been rolled out. The high-speed submersible unmanned surface vehicle “Blue Whale” was launched, capable of intelligent switching between high-speed surface navigation and submerged cruising, extending its application to meteorological data collection inside typhoon eyes. The “Haiwei (Sea Guard)” system, China’s self-developed intelligent monitoring equipment for deepwater subsea pipeline laying, successfully completed sea trials. It pioneered the technical solution combining “unmanned ship + autonomous remotely operated hybrid submersible + repeater + optical communication”, achieving six “firsts in China” and greatly improving the intelligence level of deep-sea pipeline laying monitoring. The deployment of underwater inspection robots integrated with service data and life prediction models for key marine materials has formed a technical closed loop of “intelligent monitoring/inspection — data platform — evaluation system”, bringing China into a new phase of deep integration between “intelligent equipment and big data” in marine engineering safety monitoring and inspection.
Against extreme harsh deepsea conditions such as high pressure and low temperature, China’s homegrown manned and unmanned submersibles have become primary equipment for high-risk core underwater missions.
In the first half of 2026, the manned submersible “Jiaolong” completed research cruises in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea, with a total of 40 dives. The manned submersible “Fendouzhe (Striver)” finished a trans-Pacific scientific expedition, logging 63 dives, among which 50 exceeded 6,000 meters in depth. The two manned submersibles collected abundant biological and geological specimens as well as high-definition underwater footage in four extreme deep-sea environments: hydrothermal vents, cold seeps, ocean trenches and hadal zone. Adopting in-situ deep-sea biological detection technology based on AI recognition and environmental DNA (eDNA) testing, they have significantly boosted deep-sea exploration efficiency and sampling precision, strengthened seafloor resource survey capacity in complex deep-sea habitats, and offered a brand-new technical paradigm for deep-sea resource exploration and extraction, as well as ecological assessment and conservation.
In addition, deepsea unmanned submersibles including the “Hailong” series ROVs, the “Haidou No.1” remotely operated vehicle and the “Qianlong” series autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have achieved regular scientific research and operational applications. They can carry out operations such as pipeline damage repair, foreign object clearance and deep-sea archaeology in turbid, high-pressure and low-temperature deepsea environments.
Artificial intelligence serves as the core brain of the three-dimensional security system. Currently, cross-sphere and cross-region submersibles are emerging one after another. Intelligent perception capabilities including embodied AI, network self-generation, fine-grained target recognition and autonomous tracking keep iterating, breaking down data exchange barriers among multiple pieces of equipment across “space, sky, land, sea and seabed”. Drones conduct large-scale rapid screening over the sea surface; unmanned surface vehicles perform fixed-point monitoring and communication relay; unmanned submersibles accomplish underwater positioning and simple disposal; manned submersibles carry out in-depth surveys and personnel search and rescue as needed. Together they form a full-chain closed-loop emergency response: airborne detection, surface support, underwater intervention. Meanwhile, digital twin systems are built for deepsea equipment. Massive measured data trains fault prediction models to warn potential risks in advance such as pipeline fatigue and equipment leakage, realizing the shift from “passive emergency repair” to “active early warning”.
To strategically develop the ocean, science and technology acts as the tool. Deeply embedded in marine equipment, artificial intelligence enables submersible autonomous obstacle avoidance, intelligent identification of pipeline defects and automatic classification of underwater targets, substantially cutting the labor cost of remote control. It is driving the transformation of marine industries from “manpower-driven” to “intelligence-driven”. China will continue to refine its integrated air-sea-subsea equipment system. Marine cutting-edge technologies will shoulder the mission of safeguarding the blue ocean, laying a solid technical foundation for the high-quality development of the marine economy.
Source: China Natural Resources News
2026-09-14
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Source: chinadaily.com.cn
2026-09-11
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A reporter learned from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on September 8 that the Ministry recently issued national fisheries development plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), which sets out the goal of significantly increasing the supply of high-quality aquatic products by 2030.
By 2030, China aims to keep the area of waters used for fisheries stable, further optimize the industry's structure, and achieve both higher quality and reasonable growth in quantity, according to the plan. By then, China is expected to make steady progress in modernizing facility-based fisheries, accelerate breakthroughs in core technologies and equipment, and expand the use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI). Other targets for 2030 include continued improvement in the Yangtze River's aquatic biological integrity index, a slower decline in marine fishery resources, and stable growth in populations of rare species. Fisheries governance capacity is expected to be significantly strengthened, and the safe operation of marine fishing vessels should remain stable.
To promote high-quality aquaculture, China will stabilize and expand aquaculture areas and upgrade freshwater aquaculture and mariculture, according to the plan. For safe, regulated and sustainable capture fisheries, the country will strengthen total catch management, keep the annual domestic marine catch within 10 million metric tons, and manage fishing vessels under a classification and grading system.
The plan calls for continued implementation of the 10-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River and stronger protection of fishery resources, aquatic ecosystems and aquatic wildlife. To foster new quality productive forces in fisheries, China will improve the breeding of aquatic species, upgrade facilities and equipment, and expand AI applications.
The plan emphasizes China's responsibilities as a major fishing country and calls for developing modern distant-water fisheries, participating more deeply in global fisheries governance and expanding practical international cooperation in fisheries.
Source: XINHUA
2026-09-09
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Terminal 2 (T2) of Fuzhou Changle International Airport passed provincial acceptance on Aug. 28 for its opening to the outside world, according to Fuzhou Customs.
This leap in port capacity will further enhance the comprehensive support capabilities for international passenger and cargo transport at the Fuzhou aviation port, injecting new momentum into the city's development strategy of "expanding eastward and southward, along the river and toward the sea."
Once fully operational, the project will be able to handle an annual throughput of 36 million passengers and 450,000 tonnes of cargo and mail, building an air bridge for Fuzhou to connect with and embrace the world.
Source: Fuzhou News
2026-09-04
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