Stephen Chen in Beijing,SCMP

Published: 6:00pm, 1 Apr, 2023

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China operates one of the world’s largest ocean surveying fleets but survey routes have often lacked transparency and varied from one mission to another. Photo: Xinhua

Beijing has for the first time listed the specific locations to be visited regularly by Chinese ocean research vessels, including disputed areas of the South China Sea and waters close to US Pacific bases.

The 33 areas, or “reference sections”, cover a wide span of regional waterways – from the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea to the western Pacific and eastern Indian oceans – according to the announcement from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), a top government research funder.

China operates one of the world’s largest ocean surveying fleets, with more than 60 ships in service in 2017, according to the latest data available from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, which manages the NSFC.

But the survey routes of these ships have often lacked transparency, and varied from one mission to another.

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According to Leng Shuying, director of the NSFC’s earth science department: “Uncertainties in survey sections and stations in different years and seasons is not conducive to obtaining samples and information that reflect long-term changes in important ocean processes in key sea areas.”

“Setting fixed sections for ocean research has become an inevitable choice,” Leng wrote in an article published in Chinese-language journal Oceanologia et Limnologia Sinica last week.

Five reference sections are located in the busy Taiwan Strait. Photo: Handout

Most of the periodic surveys would be carried out in China’s offshore waters, including the Taiwan Strait, according to lead author Leng and her colleagues.

The busy, narrow channel between mainland China and Taiwan alone features as many as five reference sections.

The NSFC team said the relatively shallow waters needed long-term observational data, as their fragile ecological system was heavily influenced by human activities.