The aquaculture ship is one of the core equipment for the development of deep sea aquaculture, and the large aquaculture ship using recirculating water technology is one of the main technical route for the development of aquaculture ships in China. With recirculating water aquaculture system as the core, the factory aquaculture technology is adopted to improve the application scope and industrialization level of the aquaculture equipment. In view of the characteristics of this type of ship, a general design idea is proposed based on the development of some 80,000 m³ aquaculture ship, which focuses on the general arrangement, system design, structural design and overall performance analysis by taking the recirculating aquaculture system as the core. The design points of the recirculating aquaculture system, the water intake system, and the aquaculture comprehensive management and control system are discussed to provide references for the subsequent design of this type of ship.