First Shinkai Dive of the cruise

Today was the first dive of the cruise for the submersible Shinkai 6500. Our colleague, Hiromi Watanabe, and two pilots went down to Snail site. They observed all three moorings at the seafloor. These dives to hydrothermal vents in the southern Mariana Trough are funded by the Japanese multi-disciplinary program TAIGA (Trans-crustal Advection and In-situ biogeochemical proceses of Global sub-sea floor Aquifer). You can also follow the TAIGA blog in Japanese at:

http://www-gbs.eps.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~taiga/Blog/index.html