On June 6, Shandong Shouguang Company conducted its 2025 enhancement and releasing activity at the Xiaoqing River estuary. Staff carefully released numerous fry and shrimps into the river, enabling the little marine creatures to initiate a new life journey.

“This year, we released Japanese Flounder fry (Paralichthys olivaceus) (50,000 pcs) and Fenneropenaeus chinensis (more than 200,000 pcs)”. Yao Shujian, supervisor of Shouguang Company’s Safety and Environmental Protection Supervision Department, said, “This year marks the ninth year that our company has carried out enhancement and releasing activities, and the cumulative total of more than 390,000 pcs of Japanese Flounder fry and more than 1.2 million pcs of Fenneropenaeus chinensis, totaling 1.59 million pieces, have been released”.

Shouguang Company has made careful preparations for the release activities and carried out rigorous testing and quarantine of the released fry. “Multiple rounds of testing ensure these juveniles are healthy and disease-free, and meet the release standards, which greatly increases their survival rates and provides a solid foundation for the sound development of marine ecosystems”, worker Zhou Zhiyong noted.

Zhang Chengxiang, inspector from the Marine & Fishery Bureau of Shouguang noted that releasing juveniles during summer fishing moratorium maximizes their growth potential, helping restore fish populations, maintain biodiversity, and improve the fishery ecological environment, which are crucial for ensuring long-term fishery productivity, increasing the income for local fishermen and promoting sustainable development of fishery economy.

Shouguang Company’s circulating cooling water is taken from Xiaoqing River. In order to reduce the negative impacts of water intake and drainage on the river and marine ecology (such as the entrainment effect), the Company has taken ecological compensation measures, repaired marine ecological losses, strengthened the protection of aquatic organisms, and actively assumed its social responsibility and practiced the concept of protecting the marine ecological environment.

“We hope to encourage more social participation in ecological protection through these activities”, said Xiao Heng, the Company’s Safety Director. “Protecting our marine environment is a shared responsibility. Only by working together can we achieve harmonious coexistence between people and nature”.

Local fishermen also presented and expressed support, with one saying, “The positive effects of release activities over the past years are clear—our catches have increased noticeably. We hope these activities will become regular to improve our marine environment”.