The full moon on Mid-Autumn Festival. Photo: Weidi Yang

During the expedition, information-sharing salons were scheduled in the conference room every day, serving as an interdisciplinary communicating platform for a diversity of representatives and speakers, including scientists, oceanographers, artists, entrepreneurs and seafarers, who exchanged unique perspectives, new ideas, innovative solutions, or in-depth knowledge of a specific domain.

Jiayuan Xing taught knotting skills. Photo: Jiajun Huang

Dr. Ying Yu, aboard the vessel for the first time, measured the UV radiation at different depths of the water column to study the impact of the in-water changing light field on the aquatic ecosystem. With joint efforts of the marine technicians, the measuring instrument—Compact-Optical Profiling System (C-OPS) was commissioned and the operation was finally completed despite all the twists and turns caused by unexpected instrument malfunction.

The C-OPS was commissioned with joint efforts. Photo: Jiajun Huang

In addition, Professor Dalin Shi, director of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (XMU), together with a team of scientists and researchers, conducted all-round trails of the new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to test its scientific systems and to ensure it is capable of supporting the demands of Trace-Metal-Clean (TMC) seawater and particle in situ samplings, and data collection at different water depths.

Professor Dalin Shi said that the equipment was ready for science after the trial. In the future, the team will work collaboratively to improve the robot’s competence in synchronous in situ collection of TMC seawater, biological samples, and chemical parameters.

A group photo of the scientific research team. Photo: Jiajun Huang

As shown in Nannan Tang’s video work Billennium Waves, transcending the time, the mountains would be waves of the land and the waves would be the water mountains of the ocean. Oceanographic research is like climbing over the undulating mountains, demanding willpower to meet turbulent waves, unexpected challenges, setbacks, or even failures.

A screenshot of Nannan’s video work Billennium Waves, 2015. Source: Nannan Tang

R/V TKK will continue to welcome all oceanographic research community aboard in the essential and deeply collaborative work of exploring and understanding the oceans.