China's Jiaolong completes over 10 manned deep dives in the Arctic

China continues to develop its deep-sea exploration capabilities after the country marked a leap last month with its first deep dive under Arctic ice in a crewed submersible named the Jiaolong. 

The Jiaolong has now successfully completed more than 10 manned deep dives in the Arctic Ocean, as part of China's Ocean Voyage 92 expedition. It officially entered polar operations after undergoing a localization upgrade and renovation, and following sea trials in the South China Sea. 

The expeditionary fleet set sail from the city of Qingdao, in eastern China's Shandong Province on the Yellow Sea coast, on July 15, 2025, with the Shenhai Yihao, or Deep Sea No. 1,  research vessel carrying the Jiaolong, and returned to the port city on September 8. With the support of polar scientific research icebreaker Xuelong 2, a series of operations were carried out in the Arctic Ocean during the first leg of the expedition, including manned deep dives by the Jiaolong, ROV surveys and water sampling using the CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth Profiler).​

The mission has yielded a trove of data that can be translated into valuable scientific insights. 

Through AI-based identification of high-definition image data in the survey sea area, preliminary studies have found that in some Arctic sea areas, there are significant differences in the density, biodiversity, and individual size of benthic organisms within a spatial range of tens to hundreds of kilometers. These differences may be related to the seabed topography, geomorphology, and water depth. 

The data and materials provide strong support for creating the biodiversity map of polar sea areas and conducting conservation work.​

The discovery of suspected pockmarks, dissolved holes, carbonate rocks, and multiple similar large-scale banded shell relics indicates that there may have been historical cold seep eruptions in the survey area. This provides key information for studying the methane migration channels in the Arctic region during geological history.​

Through the detailed survey conducted by the manned submersible, human understanding of the distribution laws of deep-sea biodiversity in the Arctic and the adaptive mechanisms of the ecosystem has been effectively improved.