THE Dayang No. 1 ship has finished China’s 22nd scientific expedition around the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic and returned to its mother harbor in Qingdao. It was the country’s biggest ever scientific expedition.

    The ship set off from Guangzhou on Dec. 8 and spent 369 days at sea. During the expedition, scientists had found a large amount of hydrothermal creatures.

    The ship arrived at the Olympic Center at about 9:30 a.m. A total of 218 scientists and ocean experts from 32 institutes and universities around the world participated.

    “Although we had made significant achievements in the expedition, China is still far behind developed countries,” said Tao Chunhui, chief scientist of the investigation. “The country will next improve its level in deep-sea expedition, particularly in ecological environment, biological variety, meteorology and hydrology,” he said.

    Tao said his team discovered 16 submarine hydrothermal areas. At present, there are 33 hydrothermal areas in China. “These areas are like hidden chimneys under the sea,” said Tao. Water temperature in these areas is about 300 degrees Celsius, while the temperature in neighboring areas is only about 2 degrees Celsius.

    They also found many sulphidic samples, including the biggest sulphidic sample found in China. The samples can help scientists study the forming process of the hydrothermal area.

    During the research, unknown fish and blind shrimp were discovered. “Some of the blind shrimp live in water temperatures of about 100 degrees Celsius, which is an amazing discovery,” said Huang Dingyong, who is in charge of bentonitic organism at the ocean institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences. They also caught a special and unknown fish from the hydrotherm area. “This fish is very big, like a tadpole. It is a new discovery,” said Huang.

    It was also the first expedition to gain information of the multi-metal structural environment of the Indian Ocean and install a deep-sea monitoring system in the ocean.

    “Scientists also used unmanned submersibles to detect and gain samples, marking the significant progress achieved in robotics,” said Tao. In the expedition, self-developed equipment was introduced to help scientists observe the submarine environment, collect information and gain samples.

    The Dayang No. 1 is China’s first modern scientific expedition ship built 27 years ago. Its mother harbor has been in Qingdao since 1998. It has finished 13 expedition tasks. It will continue to serve the country’s deep-sea research and development for 10 to 15 years.

    The trip had made the most significant achievements in the country’s ocean scientific expedition.(Wang Yuanyuan, Zhao Di)