China's Deep Sea Ambition, Technology, Expeditions: News & Updates

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Hainan to build super-sized fish farms
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-12 21:53:32|Editor: Liangyu


HAIKOU, April 12 (Xinhua) -- China's southern-most island province of Hainan is to build three large fish farm cages, each as big as seven standard soccer fields.

The provincial government of Hainan Thursday signed an agreement with China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. on the deep sea fish farm equipment to be installed off the coast of Lingshui Li Autonomous County in southern Hainan.

With a diameter of 110 meters and a depth of 75 meters, the fish farm platform will measure 250,000 cubic meters. Each cage can hold about 6,000 tonnes of fish, 500 to 600 times as much as standard deep water cages.

The deep water fish farming will not be affected by the busy ship traffic. The netted cages can also withstand huge waves triggered by winds with speeds of up to 220 kilometers per hour, the two said.

The cages will have the highest level of automation in China as they will automatically provide feed and monitor the fish.

 

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'Qianlong III' submersible to undergo first sea test
China Plus Published: 2018-04-16 15:10:24

Chinese research vessel "Dayang Yihao" (Ocean No. 1) has set sail from Xiamen, Fujian Province, on Sunday, carrying the newest Chinese unmanned submersible, the "Qianlong III," to the South China Sea to conduct its first sea tests, reports the Xinhua News Agency.

Chinese research vessel "Dayang Yihao" (Ocean No. 1) leaves Xiamen, Fujian Province, on April 15, 2018, to test China's newest unmanned submersible, the "Qianlong III," for the first time in the South China Sea. [Photo: Xinhua]

"Qianlong III," which can dive to a depth of 4,500 meters, is the newest member of China's unmanned submersible family.

"'Qianlong III' is an updated version of 'Qianlong II,' with better endurance capacity and lower noise. It is designed to meet the need of China's deep-sea resources exploration," said Liu Jian, chief designer of Qianlong II and III with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Officials with the China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association suggest the "Qianlong III" will mainly be used in complex underwater terrain for resource exploration.

The "Dayang Yihao," which just recently returned to China after a series of deep sea tests in the western Pacific, will also be carrying out a wide range of scientific surveys during its mission in the South China Sea.

 

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China's unmanned submersible Qianlong III makes first dive into sea
Source: Xinhua| 2018-04-20 19:17:56|Editor: Yamei



China's unmanned submersible Qianlong III makes its first dive into the sea from the Chinese research vessel Dayang Yihao (Ocean No. 1), in the early morning on April 20, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Shiping)

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China's Haiyan Becomes World's Deepest Underwater Glider
CCTV+
Published on Apr 21, 2018

Chinas self-developed underwater glider "Haiyan" has broken the world record of deep-sea dive by going down to a depth of 8,213 meters below sea level. The underwater glider, carried on board the submersible mother ship Xiangyanghong 18, returned to eastern China's Qingdao City on Saturday after finishing the dive in the Mariana Trench, known as the world's deepest sea trench.

 

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Submersible sets record for distance
By Zhang Zhihao | China Daily | Updated: 2018-04-24 07:32

China's newest ocean craft goes 156.8 kilometers, exceeding goal

Qianlong 3 returns to the mother ship, Dayang Yihao, after its 156-kilometer voyage, which concluded on Sunday. Liu Shiping/Xinhua

China's newest unmanned submersible, Qianlong 3, completed a journey of 156.8 kilometers during its second test dive in the South China Sea recently, setting a national record for the longest voyage by an underwater craft, a scientist said on Monday.

Qianlong 3 began its trip by plunging some 3,850 meters on Saturday. After about 43 hours, on Sunday evening, it finished its journey and was retrieved by crew members aboard the Chinese research vessel Dayang Yihao, Xu Yijun, the craft's deputy chief engineer, told Xinhua News Agency.

The goal was for it to go for at least 30 hours at 2 knots and cover a distance of 60 nautical miles, or 111 km.

"The end test result was great," Xu said.

Qianlong 3's advantages over its predecessors－lower energy use and greater propulsion power－are responsible for the excellent results, he added.

Qianlong 3, which is capable of reaching a depth of 4,500 meters, completed its maiden dive in the South China Sea on Friday. The first dive lasted around nine hours and reached a depth of about 3,900 meters.

Liu Jian, the submersible's chief designer, told Xinhua that the new vehicle will further strengthen China's technological capabilities in deepsea research and development, especially in more complex studies of seabed environments for scientific or mining purposes.

Qianlong 3 is retrieved from its second dive into the sea back to the Chinese research vessel Dayang Yihao, on April 22, 2018. Liu Shiping/Xinhua

Qianlong 3 features designs similar to a clownfish, down to its signature orange and white stripes, big eyes and wavy tail. The submersible is 3.5 meters long, 1.5 meters high and weighs 1.5 metric tons.

The craft is equipped with high-definition cameras and sensors, sonar systems for obstacle evasion, fully rotatable rudders and additional propellers for faster turning.

Unlike its predecessor, Qianlong 2－which has some similar design features and made its maiden dive in 2014－the new submersible is quieter, faster, uses less energy and has more domestically made components, Xu said. As a result, it can collect more data.

Qianlong 2 can operate for 30 hours underwater, but the upgraded submersible has significantly longer endurance, Xu said.

The Qianlong series of underwater vehicles was developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shenyang Institute of Automation.

 

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Ready to go! China's homegrown unmanned sub completes test dives
New China TV
Published on Apr 25, 2018

China's unmanned submersible Qianlong III has completed its test dives and is ready to enter service. During its second trial run, the sub travelled 156.82 km in 43 hours at a depth of 3,850 meters.

 

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Chinese submersibles probe deep in South China Sea
chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-05-02 16:32

China's manned submersible Shenhai Yongshi is open to the public at an event on popular science in Sanya, Hainan province, on March 11, 2018. [Photo/VCG]

Two Chinese submersibles finished a three-day joint operation, the first of its kind in the country's deep sea exploration, to detect a cold seep in the Pearl River Mouth Basin in the South China Sea.

Unmanned submersible Haima, or "seahorse", and manned submersible Shenhai Yongshi, or "deep sea warrior", on board scientific survey ships Haiyang 6 and Tansuo 1 respectively, carried out the joint operation from April 28 to 30.

They are both the major domestically developed deep-sea vehicles and set an example of how to master key technology in deep sea exploration, to swiftly use scientific research results for real benefit and to put domestic high-tech equipment into practical use.

The two submersibles conducted three dives together to reach the cold seep located in the South China Sea named after one of them, Haima, who discovered it in March 2015.

Haima took samples from and explored the cold seep by making use of multiple tools it is equipped with, such as drill, side scan and side-imaging sonar, methane sensor and trap for undersea creatures.

Shenhai Yongshi showed its functionality and ability to obtain precise data about the total area and topographic features of the cold vent.

A cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. Research on Haima cold seep could shed light on natural gas hydrate reservoir forming, the ecosystems of cold seeps and even the origins of life on earth.

The two submersibles also inspected and recorded each other's operations during the joint expedition.

 

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Offshore submersible salmon farm ready for launch
By ZHANG YI in Qingdao, Shandong province | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-05-04 12:13

Construction of China's first deep-sea fish farming facility — Shenlan 1 — was completed on Friday in Qingdao, Shandong province, and will be put into operation later this month for salmon cultivation, said Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Co.

The offshore submersible aquaculture facility can dive to a depth of 50 meters, and is able to rise or descend according to ambient water temperature, which helps create a suitable environment for nurturing salmon to maturity.

The cylindrical apparatus is 35 meters high and 180 meters in circumference, and can accommodate 50,000 cubic meters of seawater.

The facility can raise 300,000 salmon in one growth cycle, with the fish spending around a year in Shenlan 1, having a targeted production of 1,500 tons, said the builder.

When individual fish reach 5 kilograms, they will be ready to be sold to the Chinese domestic market, Wuchang added.

The equipment will be deployed about 130 nautical miles east of Shandong’s Rizhao in the Yellow Sea.

The new technology will enable China to achieve a breakthrough in large-scale breeding of salmon in open seas, and create a precedent for breeding the fish in offshore areas around the world, said the builder.

 

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China's underwater glider sets new records
Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-17 00:35:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan


TIANJIN, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Haiyan, a Chinese underwater glider, has set an endurance record among its domestic peers after working for 119 days in the South China Sea.

Codenamed Haiyan, which means storm petrel in Chinese, the glider was safely recovered from the northern part of the South China Sea Monday.

The glider, developed by a team from Tianjin University, sailed 2,272.4 km over four months, a domestic record.

In April, Haiyan set a world dive record by diving 8,213 meters in the Mariana Trench, the world's deepest known trench.

The unmanned gliders can survey marine conditions, such as temperature, salinity and currents, in large bodies of water over a long period of time.

 

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Meet our biomimetic robot finned friend in Beijing
New China TV
Published on May 21, 2018

Chinese researchers have unveiled a group of biomimetic robot fishes at a science open day event in Beijing. They are like real ones, but not just for show. Check out what they can do.

 

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Chinese Scientists Identify over 30 New Deep Sea Species
CCTV+
Published on May 29, 2018

Chinese scientists have found over 30 kinds of new deep sea species in the last two years, according to the chief scientist from China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA). The COMRA also released a series of videos showing activities of rarely-seen deep sea creatures in the seamounts during an international conference hosted by the association and International Seabed Authority in Qingdao City of east China's Shandong Province, scheduled between Monday and Tuesday.

 

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China places seismometers in Indian Ocean
By Liu Xuanzun Source:Global Times Published: 2018/5/30 0:03:54

Every country has right to conduct research in international waters: expert

China recently placed multiple ocean seismometers in the Indian Ocean where no ocean-bottom seismographic observation was available in the Junhui hydrothermal field, a specialist said.

China's 49th ocean expedition team on Sunday successfully placed ten ocean-bottom seismometers in the southwest Indian Ocean, with five more planned. Fifteen ocean-bottom seismometers will be retrieved in the coming year, according to the Science and Technology Daily on Monday.

Ocean-bottom seismometers can operate for extended periods of time on the seafloor to gather data from earthquakes and artificial vibrations in the deep sea.

The lifespan of a seismometer is from several months to a year, before being retrieved for further research.

This is the first time China has placed seismometers in the southwest Indian Ocean's Junhui hydrothermal field, according to Qiu Lei, the head of the team's earth physics department, the newspaper reported.

China has placed seismometers in the three nearby hydrothermal fields: Longqi, Yuhuang and Duanqiao. The new seismometers in Junhui have been placed where there was previously no ocean-bottom seismographic observation, Qiu was quoted by the Science and Technology Daily as saying, adding that the new seismometers have larger battery capacities to allow them to operate for more than a year.

The findings of the seismometers, especially minor earthquakes that are difficult to observe otherwise, will provide valuable data for the exploration of polymetallic sulphide and help researchers understand the structure of the region, according to the Beijing-based newspaper.

Research in the southwest Indian Ocean is usually misinterpreted by foreign media as military activity. This is simply not the case, Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of International Relations, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"Every sovereign nation has the right to conduct scientific research in international waters, so their argument does not stand," Hu said.

China's 49th ocean expedition began on December 6, 2017 on the research ship Xiangyanghong 10, hoping to explore polymetallic sulphide deposits in the southwest and northwest Indian Ocean. The expedition, with more than 200 personnel, would last 250 days, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xiangyanghong 10 is the first Chinese ocean science survey ship built with help from a private company.

 

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China’s deep-sea equipment to systematically explore South China Sea by 2020: scientist
By Li Ruohan in Qingdao Source:Global Times Published: 2018/6/7 23:53:40

Jiaolong photo: Li Hao/GT​

China's deep-sea exploration equipment is expected to systematically explore the South China Sea in 2020, a scientist said on Thursday.

The one year global expedition of Jiaolong is scheduled to begin in June 2020 and includes more than 10 countries, mostly along the route of the Belt and Road initiative.

With its advantages in gathering samples in a complicated deep-sea environment, Jiaolong is the perfect underwater vessel to explore the South China Sea, whose deepest region is around 5,000 meters, Ding Zhongjun, deputy chief engineer at the national deep sea center in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Scientists say Jiaolong is capable of diving in virtually all seas to a depth of less than 7,000 meters.

The Jiaolong's as-yet unnamed mothership will also carry the unmanned deep-sea research submersibles Qianlong and Hailong that can gather higher-quality data in the South China Sea, Ding said.

Drilling facility Shenlong, mining facility Kunlong, information sharing system Yunlong and comprehensive platform Longgong are all also expected to enter operation for joint missions in the South China Sea, Ding said.

When the seven pieces of equipment are put into operation, it would make China a leading player in global deep-sea technology, Ding said.

The expedition will also promote regional exchanges in deep-sea research technologies, Ding said.

The southern South China Sea is rich in resources including natural gas hydrate, an important potential replacement for oil and natural gas.

The South China Sea is of strategic importance for China's deep sea development and its exploration would boost the nation's involvement in global deep-sea governance, he noted.

 

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A glimpse of China’s deep-sea equipment
Source: Globaltimes.cn Published: 2018/6/8 17:31:44

Highlights: Submersibles made to explore the deep sea gather in China’s National Deep Sea Center in Qingdao, Shandong Province. A deep-sea exploration network is expected to be established in the future to better protect the ocean environment and safeguard the country’s maritime rights, according to Ding Zhongjun, deputy chief engineer of China’s National Deep Sea Center. (Photos: Li Hao/GT)

China's first deep-sea manned submersible, Jiaolong. Photo: Li Hao/GT

The mechanical hand of Jiaolong is on display. Photo: Li Hao/GT

This is a 1:1 model of the real propeller and stabilizer used on the simulated training system for Jiaolong. Photo: Li Hao/GT

The inside of Jiaolong’s simulation cockpit. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Pictured is the Qianlong autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Photo: Li Hao/GT

Pictured is the Qianlong autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Photo: Li Hao/GT

Pictured is the Qianlong autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Photo: Li Hao/GT

This is China's unmanned submersible Hailong III. Photo: Li Hao/GT

The camera, mechanical hand and propeller of the unmanned remote-controlled submersible Hailong are considered the eyes, arms, legs and feet of the operator on the carrier. Photo: Li Hao/GT​

 

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Online seabed monitoring system operates in east China
Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-01 16:41:01|Editor: Yurou


BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- An oceanic monitoring system is in stable operation in Penglai, east China's Shandong Province, according to the National Ocean Technology Center Sunday.

The quantitative online monitoring and observation system was launched on June 24. It tests pH levels and concentration of dissolved oxygen which are influenced by temperature, salinity and water pressure, said Luo Xuye with the center.

Located 800 meters away from the shore, the system is expected to upgrade offshore sampling to continuous online monitoring, and improve ecological assessment.

The system's monitoring period ranges from one second to 30 minutes, depending on the subjects monitored.

Penglai is located at the northern tip of the Jiaodong Peninsula, where the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea meet.

The center plans to promote the system in other national ocean stations.