Nippon Marine Enterprise, a subsidiary of Nissui, is helping to uncover the mysteries of the marine deep. (Photo: Nippon Marine)

Japanese scientists lead the way in deep-sea exploration

JAPAN
Monday, August 31, 2009, 11:50 (GMT + 9)

Nippon Marine Enterprises Ltd, a group company wholly owned by Nissui, is involved in a fascinating deepwater probing project.

Nippon Marine has been entrusted with the operations and the management of the offshore/deepwater exploration vessels owned by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).

One of the vessels, the Shinkai 6500, a manned research submersible equipped with the world's top capacity for navigating underwater, has recorded over 1,000 dives underwater with important results.

The Shinkai 6500, a manned research submersible. (Photo: Nippon Marine Enterprises )

JAMSTEC conducts comprehensive investigative research in the seas and the earth and is the leader in Japan of deep-sea exploration. The Agency, which began in 1971 as the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, later became an independent administrative institution and changed its name to the current one, reports Nissui.

As the number "6500" in the name suggests, the vessel is capable of diving down to a depth of 6,500 metres and as a manned submersible vessel, is capable of diving to the deepest depths in the world, being able to cover 98 per cent of the world's seafloor.

However, it must be remembered that whereas the average altitude above ground is 800 meters, the ocean's average water depth is 3,800 meters. Moreover no light or radio waves reach the ocean depths. In a time when NASA are planning manned missions to Mars, it is said that it is far more difficult to investigate the deep sea than it is to explore outer space, with large portions of the sea still unexplored.

Many say that the ocean depths have become the most important frontier for the 21st century both in the academic and social contexts, and Japan is undoubtedly leading the way in this research.

By Michel Loubet
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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