The Ocean Researcher VThe NARL’s Taiwan Ocean Research Institute (TORI) launched a 2,700-ton ocean research vessel in the southern harbor city of Kaohsiung on June 10, 2011, which opens a new chapter in the nation’s ocean research efforts. Christened as the Ocean Researcher V is the largest research vessel ever commissioned in Taiwan, and will play a crucial role in projects, including weather study, ocean floor exploration and search for alteative energy derived from wind, sun and solidified natural gas.
Taiwan is known to be ecologically fragile and vulnerable to natural disasters. Thus the ship will also be tasked with drilling the seabed for earthquake and tsunami research, and extracting seawater samples to monitor ocean pollution. Since seventy percent of the nation’s earthquakes happen at the sea off the east coast, an array of networked sensors in the Ocean Researcher V will help monitor submarine earthquakes and tsunamis that bear down on coastal cities causing property damages and loss of life.
Designed to operate at sea continuously for up to 60 days, which is a duration that will enable the ship to range across any ocean on Earth, and withstand waves generated by winds up to 40 knots in precipitous sea, the 72.6-meter-long and 15.4-meter-wide vessel is set to serve as a safe and technically advanced mobile research platform for seagoing scientists. And the new vessel will be equipped with powerful ocean exploration equipment and instrumentation, including a 3,000-meter-class remotely operated underwater vehicle with two mechanical arms that can explore the 5000 to 6000-meter deep seafloor to collect data.
The new vessel’s home port will be the NARL-TORI Headquarters in Shingda Port of Kaohsiung City. The NARL-TORI has a strong record of capably conducting cutting-edge research on oceanographic expeditions in the region, and the Ocean Researcher V represents an important next step in advancing Taiwan’s ability to further marine scientific knowledge imperative to the safety and prosperity of the society.
