(ECNS) -- A total of 870 artificial reefs with a total volume of more than 30,000 cubic meters are to be placed in the national marine ranching demonstration zone in Sanya Wuzhizhou Island in a month since April 8.
The marine ranch project, co-worked by Hainan University and Sanya Wuzhizhou Island authorities in 2011, has carried out placing artificial reefs, restoring the marine ecological environment, transplanting corals and so on to promote the restoration and preservation of the marine ecology.
A total of 1,526 artificial reefs, 21 ship-reefs and a cluster of volcanic rocks of more than 40,000 cubic meters had been placed in Wuzhizhou Island's marine ranch by the end of 2020, forming a complete marine biosphere including coral reefs, fish, shrimp, shellfish, etc.
"The coverage rate of living coral in the marine ranch has increased from less than 15 percent to over 23 percent.The species of fish here have also increased by about 30 percent compared with surrounding waters," said Wang Aimin, Professor of the College of Marine Sciences, Hainan University.
The marine ranch in Sanya Wuzhizhou Island is the first national marine ranching demonstration zone in Hainan and the first national tropical marine ranch in China. The ecological environment in this marine ranch is getting better, which benefits the economic benefits and brands promotion of local tourism enterprises.
"The restoration of marine ecology in the past decade has promoted our tourism brand so that more and more diving lovers from all over the world have been attracted to dive here," said Ding Feng, Vice CEO of Sanya Wuzhizhou Island Tourism Zone.
