Zhoushan is the smallest city in Zhejiang Province by land area, yet it has a distinct "marine DNA." Data shows that the marine economy accounts for 69.5% of Zhoushan's GDP, ranking among the top coastal cities in China.

At present, Zhoushan is driving the transformation and upgrading of traditional marine industries, with intelligence and digitalization becoming important directions for that shift.

During a recent research visit to Zhoushan, it was learned that as one of the local pillar industries, the shipbuilding sector is accelerating its intelligent upgrading. Entering the final assembly workshop of Jiesheng Marine Engineering Equipment Co., Ltd., large core fishing equipment for trawlers—such as automated trawl winches, net hauling machines, and net-displacement winches—is neatly arranged. Some equipment has already moved from relying on manual operation in the past to automated and intelligent control.

"Unlike traditional operations that rely mainly on manual control, intelligent and automated fishing equipment can carry out unmanned trawling through automated trawl systems, significantly improving operational efficiency and catch returns," introduced Zhu Linsen, a senior engineer at Jiesheng Equipment.

Intelligent transformation has also extended to ship repair and construction. For a long time, hull rust removal has been a longstanding challenge in the ship repair and construction field: traditional manual rust removal is not only labor-intensive and relatively high-risk, but also faces room for improvement in construction efficiency and environmental performance.

To address this industry pain point, the ship rust removal robot independently developed by Zhejiang Shihe Technology Co., Ltd. can replace some high-risk, high-intensity manual operations and provide a complete set of solutions for ship surface treatment. The trend of traditional ship repair and construction shifting from "labor-intensive" to mechanized and intelligent operations is gradually emerging.

Behind the industrial transformation, scientific and technological innovation platforms are also accelerating their layout. It was learned that Zhoushan is advancing the construction of universities and research platforms such as the Donghai Laboratory, carrying out technical research in fields including deep-sea exploration and robotics, and marine intelligent sensing equipment, while a high-level ship and marine engineering innovation platform is taking shape at a faster pace.