The city is an international centre for aquaculture, shipping, offshore petroleum industry and subsea technology, and a national centre for higher education, tourism and finance.
Its natural habitats are temperate forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, intermittent rivers, rural gardens, ponds, and aquaculture ponds.
In addition, research is undertaken on improving the production and sustainability of existing important aquaculture species, such as abalone, mussels and oysters.
