China's first round-world oceanic research expedition ship is now working at the West Pacific Ocean as planned. The expedition team has obtained a batch of data, minerals from seabed and environment samples. The team members also cast three drift bottles that carry Chinese people's best wishes in the Pacific Ocean.

The expedition team set out from Qingdao on April 2nd for the 300-day research. On Apr 5 the "Ocean One"entered the Pacific Ocean, and it arrived at working area on Apr 10. At 2 a.m. the members started experiments in order to test winch system and watertight function for the video system. Upon the experiments' completion at 6 pm, they started sampling by shallow drilling.

"The member who suffers from serious seasickness is back to normal. This makes all of us a little relieved,"said Political Commissioner Zhang Baoming on April 13. By Apr 15 the team had surveyed a couple of sites in the working area.

On Apr 16 the team held a ceremony to release the 2nd batch of drift bottles. Chief Scientist Wang Chunsheng, Captain Lu Huisheng and Political Commissioner Zhang Baoming cast three drift bottles in the vast Pacific Ocean, hoping the ocean will carry their wishes for peace to people in different countries.

Due to influence of tropical cyclone and subtropical high the wind scale has increased to Beaufort scale 7 to 8 recently, which has brought difficulty for fix-point operation. To avoid influence of tropical cyclone, the team has moved to another working area in the evening of April 16, where they carried out photographing in deep sea and collected 700 kilograms of minerals and rock samples.

By People's Daily Online