Dans le journal Shanghai Daily, le 13 Janvier 2014 ,
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China succeeded in its first 300-meter saturation dive early yesterday with three divers returning safe and sound from deep water to their living chamber on the support ship.
Their diving bell reached a depth of 313.5 meters under the South China Sea, Guo Jie, on-site chief director of the experiment, said.
The divers — Hu Jian, Guan Meng and Dong Meng — were back on the deck of the ship at 5:09am.
Saturation diving technology enables human beings to withstand high water pressure by saturating human tissue with inert gas, Guo said.
Three other Chinese divers, Li Hongjian, Luo Xiaoming and Tan Hui, began another saturation dive at 8am and they returned to the living chamber at around 2pm.
The divers will stay in the chamber until January 24 to let the inert gas in their tissue fluid return to normal pressure, said Shen Hao, director of the Shanghai rescue and salvage center.
China is currently developing saturation diving technology that would enable work at a depth of 500 meters, said Wang Zhenliang, director of the Ministry of Transport’s rescue and salvage center.
To date, eight countries — Britain, the United States, Switzerland, Norway, France, Germany, Japan and Russia — have succeeded in making saturation dives to depths of 400 meters.
Saturation diving was developed to allow divers to stay under water longer and at greater depths. It is commonly used in deep sea exploration, rescue operations and engineering construction on the sea bed.
China previously conducted its experiments in laboratories, where divers had once reached a simulated depth of 493 meters, according to lab records.
China has made impressive achievements in marine research in recent years.
In 2012, Jiaolong, the country’s most advanced manned submersible, achieved a record dive depth of more than 7,000 meters.
Guo said a domestically developed saturation system took divers to 103.5 meters under the South China Sea on a rescue and salvage operation in 2006.
Construction of the country’s 300-meter saturation dive system began in November 2007, when the Shanghai Salvage Bureau under the Ministry of Transport signed a construction contract with Divex Ltd, a subsea equipment producer based in Scotland. The system was delivered two years later.
“Today’s success indicates that China’s saturation diving development has outpaced India,” Guo said yesterday.
China needs continued efforts to keep up with other countries.
In the Asian-Pacific region, Japan has the capability of reaching depths of 450 meters and it has regular practices on the open sea every year.
At present, the United States and France are the global leaders in saturation diving technology, Guo said.
However, some industry insiders expect China to become the world’s largest diving market in the coming years.
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Julien