In order to conduct a research survey of Taiwan's territorial waters, the largest domestic oceanographic research vessel—the National Applied Research Laboratories' 2,700-ton vessel Ocean Researcher V—entered the waters near Huangyan Island, also known as Scarborough Shoal of the Zhongsha Islands and Taiping Island of the Spratly Islands on May 16 and June 17 respectively, escorted by Coast Guard and Naval vessels. These two separate voyages, which came in the wake of a scientific cruise of the waters near Dongsha Island between February 18 and March 9 of this year (2013)—consisted of two-week marine surveys.

(caption) Ocean Researcher V surveyed the Zheng He Reefs around Taiping Island for the first time.

Huangyan Island is located approximately 850 kilometers from the city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, and is the sole reef in the Zhongsha Archipelago to emerge above sea level; it is roughly the size of a table, and is separated from the Philippines islands by the Manila Trench. Taiping Island is approximately 1,600 km from Kaohsiung, and is administered by the city of Kaohsiung. It is the largest island in the Spratly Islands, and has an area of roughly 0.49 square kilometers.

Taiping Island is located in the middle of the South China Sea with a tropical climate, typhoons are common, and the southwest monsoon blows steadily during the summer months. Sea conditions are often atrocious, and the island is extremely inaccessible by sea. Although Taiwan has stationed Coast Guard personnel at the island on a long-term basis, the difficulty of supplying the outpost makes living conditions on the island very harsh.

The South China Sea was unusually calm in May, and the Ocean Researcher V's ultra-low noise propulsion system made it seem as if the ocean was calmly awaiting the vessel's arrival. Equipped with advanced deep-water multi-beam echo sounders, Ocean Researcher V conducted survey operations continuously throughout the day and night over the course of 17 days, during which time the vessel approached Huangyan Island to within a distance of only 5 nautical miles.

This voyage conducted topographic survey over an area of more than 40,000 square kilometers and many grand undersea volcanoes were identified, suggesting that tectonic activity was intense when the crust beneath the South China Sea was stretched over 20 million years ago, which led to the eruption and outflow of lava. As a result of this survey, our picture of Huangyan Island has changed from a small reef protruding from the sea to the top of a gigantic undersea volcano. Further geophysical exploration in the future should shed more light on the marine environment and marine resources found here as well.

The destination of the Ocean Researcher V's June voyage was Taiping Island in the far south, which was then—while the southwest monsoon was at its peak—in the midst of a low pressure. Unsurprisingly, the island was already near the center of a tropical depression by June 20, immediately before the vessel's arrival, and the year's fifth typhoon—Typhoon Bebinca—formed nearby on June 21. This typhoon had an average wind speed of 18 m/s, with wind gusts up to 25 m/s. Relying on its superb performance and excellent satellite communications, the Ocean Researcher V managed to reach its destination by skirting the edge of the tropical depression and Typhoon Bebinca.

Thanks to the crew's outstanding ship-handling skills, and the vessel's precise dynamic positioning system and excellent seaworthiness, the ship was able to successfully deploy instruments to depths as deep as 4,330 meters even under severe sea conditions of Wind Force 7-8 and 6-meter waves. Apart from investigating hydrography and taking water samples, a northward current with a speed of approximately 7 cm/s was found at depths below 2,000 meters while a deep current of roughly 5 cm/s flows northwestward below 4,000 meters.

Apart from water chemical and biological sampling and topographic survey conducted outside the Taiping Island reef, the Ocean Researcher V further conducted a topographic survey throughout the Zheng He Reefs, and discovered that these atolls were once active volcanoes. Furthermore, a data buoy was also deployed 2.5 nautical miles away from the island, which underscored Taiwan's determination to pursue oceanographic research in the South China Sea. Currently bobbing in the waves 4.5 km to the west of Taiping Island in water 822 meters in depth, this buoy has successfully begun its mission as a marine "weatherman" near the southern tip of the nation's territorial waters.

It's worth noting that the National Space Organization, National Applied Research Laboratories and Taiwan Ocean Research Institute jointly used images taken by the FORMOSAT-2 satellite at 10:00 on the morning of June 25 to record the presence of the Ocean Researcher V to the west of Taiping Island; this historic combination of marine and space technologies illustrates that Taiwan's technological capabilities have entered a new era.