Museum’s new research ship aims to unveil secrets of the ocean

2023-08-08

Living in Taiwan, we’re surrounded by the ocean. Our daily life is shaped in big and small ways by the marine environment, but the ocean remains a mystery in many ways. Even marine biologists have huge question marks about what’s going on in the waters off the coast. Now, a new research ship might be about to lift the veil on some of the secrets of the sea. Commissioned by the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, the ship is the first of its kind in Taiwan. It can support an ROV or remotely operated vehicle, a kind of unmanned submarine. Experts hope it’s a new chapter for marine research.

The research ship arrives at its destination and gets to work.

Researchers will carry out a study using this ROV.

Chen Chii-Shiarng
National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium
We want to use this to research two different places, and find out how the same coral has changed there. We hope to have results in two or three years’ time.

The museum has previously rented boats from which to operate their ROVs, which are free-swimming submersible vehicles like this one. That’s not cheap. Now they’ve built Taiwan’s first dedicated research ship, the “Crimson Tree.”

The ship is an aluminum alloy catamaran, and has two spacious and sturdy working decks. With its GPS navigation system and impressive tops speeds, the research team can visit many different sites in a single day.

Yang Chi-tai
Ship captain
We wanted a very stable working platform, so we chose a catamaran. It has quite a wide afterdeck. Once it has locked onto the GS location, we can stay in a stable position for about 30 minutes. So our ROV which is working underwater doesn’t get pulled around when the ship is pushed and pulled by waves and wind. That makes the ROV get unbalanced underwater.

Wang Li-hsueh
National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium
It’s an aluminum catamaran, and a small-scale research ship, which is rare in Taiwan. With this ship, and our underwater unmanned vehicle, we hope to conduct offshore surveys along the Taiwan coast, from 30 to 200 meters, and we may even be able to go down further, perhaps to research 500 meters under the surface.

The offshore research ship was officially launched in 2023. Created by the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium specifically for research purposes, the museum hopes it can help us get closer to the mysteries of the ocean.

海生館打造"絳樹號" 全台唯一海洋研究船曝光

2023-08-08

國立海洋生物博物館，長年致力於海洋生物研究，但是以往都得租借船隻才能出海研究，不只開銷不小，使用上也不符合需求，現在海生館打造了全台唯一的研究船"絳樹號"，帶您來看看。

研究船行駛到目標海域，開始運作。

操控水下遙控載具，進行海洋相關的研究。

[[國立海洋生物博物館長陳啟祥]]
“我們希望用這個去兩個不一樣的地方，去研究，同樣的珊瑚到底有什麼變化，希望在未來的兩三年裡面，我們有豐碩的成果”

為了實施ROV，也就是水下遙控載具技術，來研究各種海域，以往海生館得租借船隻出海，開銷不小，現在他們打造了全台唯一的研究船"絳樹號"。

鋁合金船體，還有雙面穩定寬敞的工作平台、海上能保存GPS定位，加上超快航速，讓研究相關人員，能當天來回各種海域。

[[船長楊啟泰]]
“希望有一個穩定(的工作平台，所以我們採用了雙體船的這個模式，有比較寬廣的後甲板，它只要透過GPS鎖定位置之後，我們能夠大概在30公分的範圍之內，維持一個穩定的狀態，讓我們在水下工作的ROV(水下遙控載具) ，不至於被海上的海流跟風，拉動船的時候，一起被牽扯到，導致ROV在水下失去平衡”

[[國立海洋生物博物館企研主任王立雪]]
“它是一艘雙體的鋁合金船，這也是在台灣少見的一個小型研究船，那我們希望在有這艘船之下，能夠搭配我們水下無人載具，進行台灣沿海，大概從30米到200米附近的探勘，甚至可以再往下延伸，到大約水深500米的研究”

這艘海生館自己打造的近海用的研究船，在2023年正式下水，也是全台第一艘，海生館也希望，透過這艘專為研究而生的船隻，能協助研究更多，海洋的神奇奧妙。