Shanghai Maritime University has welcomed its deep-sea submersible "Rainbow Fish," the first non-government-funded submersible, back from its one-month dive mission in the South China Sea.
During the past month, "Rainbow Fish" has dived more than a dozen times in the South China Sea, reaching a depth of 4,328 meters. It is set to take sea trials near the Mariana islands next year, before eventually trying to scale the depths of the Mariana Trench in 2019.
The retrieving system, surface control system and optical fiber of "Rainbow Fish" were all manufactured domestically, and these features will help combat the hydraulic pressure of being 11,000 meters below the sea surface.
An ambulatory deep-sea science lab will also be founded, relying on bathyscaphes and their mothership.
"It's an open, ambulatory science lab. The samples and data collected by the submersibles will pave the way for fields of science research, such as biology, ecology, chemistry, marine technology, and marine surveying and mapping, etc," said Chen Xinjun, dean of Marine Science College, Shanghai Maritime University.
This open platform will facilitate continuous, systematical research of the deep-sea. Aberdeen University, Hawaii Pacific University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have already signed agreements of cooperation with the "Rainbow Fish" project, co-developed by Shanghai Maritime University and the Rainbow Fish Ocean Technology Company.
"The study of the Hadal Trench, 6,000 meters beneath the sea, remains limited. If we have sufficient funds to survey and investigate each trench, we will accomplish a meaningful task for the understanding of marine science and ecological structuring," said Cui Weicheng with Shanghai Maritime University.
