Haixun 08, the largest and most advanced surveying ship in China's maritime safety system. [Photo/Xinhua]
The deployment of Haixun 08, the largest and most advanced surveying ship in China's maritime safety system, will dramatically improve the country's oceanographic research and its support capability for the maritime industries, according to its chief designer.
Ye Hao from the Marine Design and Research Institute of China in Shanghai, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp, said on Friday that the Haixun 08 is mainly tasked with surveying underwater conditions and hydrological information along sea lanes and is also capable of conducting scientific missions, emergency search and rescue as well as wreck location.
"If we wish to guarantee the smooth and safe operations of ships, we'd better clearly know about the natural conditions of sea lanes like the water depth, ocean current and seabed's geological structures," he said.
Ye said that before Haixun 08, there had been some small vessels used for sea-lane survey operations but they are only able to survey coastal waters and many of them have become old.
"Considering the fact that our shipping companies have been operating worldwide, it is necessary to build a new vessel that can conduct survey operations in distant oceans," the designer explained.
Haixun 08 is equipped with a state-of-the-art measuring and positioning apparatus. It also features strong data-processing capacity that allows researchers to analyze and use related information onboard the vessel rather than having to transmit data back to ground-based processing facilities like they did before, according to Ye.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the China Marine Equipment Expo 2023, which opened in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, on Thursday.
The four-day expo is one of the largest events of the nation's marine and shipbuilding sectors. A total of 715 enterprises and research bodies are taking part in the expo, displaying more than 6,500 products and technologies.
According to Ye's institute, the Haixun 08 is 123.6 meters long, 21.2 meters wide and has a displacement of more than 8,200 metric tons. Its maximum speed is 16 knot (30 kilometers per hour).
It can operate in all oceans except the polar regions and is capable of sailing more than 33,000 kilometers in a single voyage.
The ship can accommodate up to 100 sailors and researchers and can independently work as long as 60 days, without needing to be refueled and resupplied.
Construction of the vessel started in December 2019 at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai. The vessel's main frame was completed in July 2022 and then it continued to be mounted with equipment and carried out trial operations.
The ship was formally commissioned to the Shanghai-based Eastern Navigation Service Center under the Maritime Safety Administration at the end of September.
