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On August 18, the Jiaolong completed its 300th dive, and the frogmen recovered the Jiaolong on board. Xinhua News Agency

The mysteries of the deep sea are becoming less out of reach. At about 13:00 on August 18 (about 11:00 Beijing time), on the deep blue surface of the western Pacific Ocean, the Jiaolong, carrying scientist Xu Xuewei, and submariners Qi Haibin and Zhang Yi, completed its first dive. This was the 300th dive of the Jiaolong, my country's first 7,000-meter-class manned submersible independently designed and integrated.
Golden starfish, sponges with black corals, cold-water corals with orange and yellow vines... During this dive, the Jiaolong brought back the deep-sea "gifts" that scientists had always dreamed of.
According to Xu Xuewei, chief scientist of the 2024 Western Pacific International Voyage and deputy director of the National Deep Sea Base Management Center, this dive will be conducted in a seamount that has not yet been officially named in the Western Pacific Ocean. The main task is to observe and photograph the distribution of seabed organisms from the slope to the top of the seamount, collect biological, water, geological samples and environmental parameter data, and comprehensively test the various functions of the submersible.
At the submersible monitoring center, the images taken by the Jiaolong were displayed on a large screen. The 2,000-meter deep sea was quiet and dark, and a beam of light from the Jiaolong illuminated the seabed ahead. From time to time, white particles hurriedly passed by in the direction of the light.
"The seafloor microorganisms cannot be seen with the naked eye, but they aggregate with tiny particles floating in the seawater to form granular 'marine snow', which is also the main food source for seamount organisms," said Xu Xuewei.
Through the "eyes" of the Jiaolong, colorful deep-sea creatures emerged on the seamount ridges. Anemones, cold-water corals, and sponges drifted slowly, while starfish, sea cucumbers, and sea lilies appeared and disappeared from time to time, forming a mysterious "deep-sea garden".
As time went by, the Jiaolong arrived at the top of the seamount. Chinese and foreign scientists pointed at the screen and identified the rocks at the foot and top of the mountain. "This unnamed seamount welcomed its first batch of 'visitors' today. I am lucky enough to be one of them and I can't hide my excitement," said Xu Xuewei.
Since completing its first diving test on the surface of the Yangtze River in August 2009, it has completed a 7,000-meter sea trial in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific in July 2012, carried out a comprehensive technical upgrade in 2017, explored the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in the first half of this year and set a new record of "nine days and nine dives". Now it has successfully completed its 300th dive... The Jiaolong has left its footprints on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, demonstrating China's deep-diving strength and realizing the long-cherished wish of "reaching for the moon in the sky and catching turtles in the five oceans."
According to Xinhua News Agency