The first National Aquatic Skills Competition for College Students was held at Guangdong Ocean University in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province from Nov 22 to 24, attracting nearly 300 contestants from 54 universities nationwide to showcase practical skills in aquaculture.

Contestants take part in the competition of fish anatomy and classification. [Photo/Zhanjiang Daily]

The competition projects focused on the key difficulties of current industry development, aiming to cultivate high-quality aquatic talents. Six projects were completed during the two-day event, spanning fish anatomy and classification, the identification of plankton species, the detection of aquaculture water quality indicators, the identification and formulation design of feed raw materials, the routine inspection of diseased fish and identification of common fish diseases, as well as bloody lymph extraction, anatomy, and classification of shrimp and crabs.

Contestants extract, dissect, and classify the blood lymphocytes of shrimp and crabs. [Photo/Zhanjiang Daily]

In addition, an aquatic entrepreneur forum was also held, with entrepreneurs from the aquatic industry discussing issues like the current development of the aquatic industry, new concepts and technologies in aquaculture, advanced models and successful experience in sustainable aquaculture development, industry-university-research integration in university-enterprise cooperation, as well as the prospects of the aquatic industry in the future.

The events fully demonstrated the important role of the aquaculture skills competition as a platform to cultivate elite talents, as well as realized the exchange and sharing of scientific research achievements between universities and enterprises.

The referees score the fish anatomy submissions. [Photo/Zhanjiang Daily]