Roman and Celtic coin hoard worth up to £10m found in Jersey

From BBC News: Roman and Celtic coin hoard worth up to £10m found in Jersey

One of Europe's largest hoards of Iron Age coins has been unearthed in Jersey and could be worth up to £10m, according to an expert.

The Roman and Celtic coins, which date from the 1st Century BC, were found by two metal detector enthusiasts.

Dr Philip de Jersey, a former Celtic coin expert at Oxford University, said the haul was "extremely exciting and very significant".

He said each individual coin was worth between £100 and £200.

The exact number of coins found has not been established, but archaeologists said the hoard weighed about three quarters of a tonne and could contain about 50,000 coins.

The exact location of the hoard has not been revealed by the authorities but Environment Minister, Deputy Rob Duhamel, said he would do everything he could to protect the site.

"Sites like these do need protection because there is speculation there might even be more," he said.

"It is a very exciting piece of news and perhaps harks back to our cultural heritage in terms of finance. It was found under a hedge so perhaps this is an early example of hedge fund trading."

It was found by Reg Mead and Richard Miles in a field in the east of Jersey.

They had been searching for more than 30 years after hearing rumours a farmer had discovered silver coins while working on his land.

Mr Mead and Mr Miles worked with experts from Jersey Heritage to slowly unearth the treasure.

A large mound of clay containing the coins has now been taken to a safe location to be studied.

It is the first hoard of coins found in the island for more than 60 years.

Several hoards of Celtic coins have been found in Jersey before but the largest was in 1935 at La Marquanderie when more than 11,000 were discovered.

Dr de Jersey said it would take months for archaeologists to find out the full value of the haul.

He said: "It is extremely exciting and very significant. It will add a huge amount of new information, not just about the coins themselves but the people who were using them.

"Most archaeologists with an interest in coins spend their lives in libraries writing about coins and looking at pictures of coins.

"To actually go out and excavate one in a field, most of us never get that opportunity. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity." Cleaning coins The coins will now be separated and cleaned at the Jersey Archive

The ownership of the coins is unclear. Mr Mead said he had asked the States of Jersey for clarification.

Deputy Duhamel said the owners of the site had indicated they would like to see the whole hoard on display at the Jersey Museum or the archive.

Air Force plane and crew missing for 60 years discovered on Alaska glacier

From Yahoo News: Air Force plane and crew missing for 60 years discovered on Alaska glacier

A U.S. Air Force plane that disappeared 60 years ago in Alaska has been found on a glacier, 14 miles from where it originally crashed into a mountain.

The C-124 Globemaster and its crew of 52 servicemen were lost when the plane crashed in November 1952. A military spokeswoman said that a recovery team is still working to officially identify debris found on Colony Glacier, about 45 miles east of Anchorage, but that the military believes it to be from the long-missing place.

"Some of the evidence positively correlates to the United States Air Force Globemaster that crashed in 1952," said Captain Jamie Dobson of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), which specializes in recovering remains of lost military personnel, the Associated Press reports.

An Alaska National Guard helicopter crew conducting a routine training mission in the area first spotted the wreckage on June 10. The findings, which reportedly include suspected bone fragments, are currently being analyzed at JPAC's laboratory in Hawaii.

"They weren't seeing human remains. They were seeing wreckage. But it wasn't recoverable. It was frozen in ice," Dobson said.

Members of the recovery team descended into some of the glacier's crevasses to look for additional remains but were not able to recover further debris.

Historian Doug Beckstead said that pilots searched for the C-124 in the days after it crashed into Mount Gannett. Six days after the crash, pilots spotted the plane's tail sticking out from snow on the mountain. However, bad weather eventually brought an end to the search efforts before any of the crew's bodies could be recovered. Eventually, the wreckage became covered in snow and its exact location was lost.

"Over the last 60 years, it's [the plane wreckage] just been flowing down that glacier," Beckstead said.

ARQ Treasure Quest Brings You a Unique Underwater RTS Game

From TimesUnion.com:  ARQ Treasure Quest Brings You a Unique Underwater RTS Game

Arqueonautas and Biodroid team up to bring shipwreck underwater archaeology to videogames.

Lisbon, Portugal (PRWEB) June 22, 2012

Arqueonautas Worldwide - Arqueologia Subaquática SA (AWW), a leading marine archaeology company, and Biodroid Entertainment, a media entertainment company, both based in Portugal, have reached an agreement to jointly develop a videogame of shipwreck underwater expeditions strongly inspired by the actual work of the former in underwater heritage sites all around the globe. Biodroid will become equity holder in this venture.

Titled “ARQ Treasure Quest,” the game concept was developed by the Arqueonautas team and will encompass strategy elements as well as simulation realistic facets from operations into its gameplay. The primary goal for the player is to successfully manage a marine archaeological expedition with an expert team of historians, archaeologists, divers, surveyors, conservators, researchers, investors, government officials and many other specialists in search for sunken treasures. An important part of the gameplay is to follow actual legal procedures and good governances to achieve satisfying results moving through the different levels.
The game is currently searching for crowd funding on IndieGoGo and a first demo will be presented in August, during GDC Europe.

Nikolaus Graf Sandizell, founder of Arqueonautas, commented, “ARQ Treasure Quest is an important step in our strategy of brand diversification initiated with the Arqueonautas Fashion Line. To replicate in a game format the Arqueonautas experience will further promote our values among a totally new market and help us spread our message as an active organization working on behalf of the Protection of World Maritime Heritage, in a way that can also be fun, exciting and adventurous.”

On the occasion Diogo Horta e Costa, founding partner of Biodroid, said that “this venture with Arqueonautas will open our production to a whole new genre of gaming, one with historical and technical factual data and a worthwhile adventures mission. At the same time that we’ll bring awareness for maritime heritage, we’ll bring players to experience first-hand the fun and excitement of shipwreck diving in exotic locations with a true historical back-drop.”

About Arqueonautas Worldwide
Arqueonautas Worldwide – Arqueologia Subaquática, SA (AWW) was founded in August 1995 as a private limited company in Madeira, Portugal. Since then, AWW has developed into a leading, commercially oriented marine archaeological institution, listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (QOW / PTAQW9AE0006), which recovers, under strict scientific criteria cargo and artifacts from endangered and historically significant shipwrecks. An up-listing from the Open Market to the Entry Standard was approved at the annual Assembly General Meeting, on the 13th April 2012 and will take place in the fourth quarter of 2012. From its headquarters in Portugal and under the leadership of its founder, Nikolaus Graf Sandizell, an experienced team of historians, marine archaeologists, research divers and conservation experts, works around the globe on a variety of search and recovery projects. The share capital of the company, which is conducted as a Portuguese corporation (S.A.), is currently divided into 8,200,030 shares (book-entry shares). The activity is financed entirely by private investors and the proceeds of the Arqueonautas Fashion Line (a trademark of the OTTO Group), without government subsidies.

The Company's mission is to save world maritime heritage as well as to promote scientific studies by carrying out marine archaeological projects whilst ensuring a fair return on investment to shareholders. To date, Arqueonautas has found more than 150 historical shipwrecks in Africa, Asia and South America. From the 15 wrecks excavated so far, 100,000 coins and 10,000 culturally significant artifacts have been recovered and documented in scientific publications. Currently AWW is preparing a recovery project in Indonesia of the largest shipwreck porcelain cargo ever found, the ‘Wanli Cargo’. Recovery operations are expected to begin in 2013. In the past twelve years, Arqueonautas has already located 40 historic shipwreck sites and carried out four successful recovery operations in the territorial waters of Mozambique. Survey operations
for nine other historically documented shipwrecks off the coast of Mozambique are underway.

The US Navy’s Deadly MK6 Attack Dolphin Program

From SOFREP:  The US Navy’s Deadly MK6 Attack Dolphin Program

In the Fleet’s Operational Marine Mammal Systems (MMS), the Navy uses dolphins and sea lions to find and mark the location of underwater objects.
Dolphins are essential because their exceptional biological sonar is unmatched by hardware sonars in detecting objects in the water column and on the sea floor. Sea lions are used because they have very sensitive underwater directional hearing and exceptional vision in low light conditions.
Both of these marine mammal species are trainable for tasks and are capable of repetitive deep diving.

A Mark V "Sea Lion" System At Work

Some of the objects the animals find are expensive to replace. Others could present a danger to Navy personnel and vessels. The dolphins and sea lions work under the care and close supervision of their handlers and are generally trained for a particular operational capability called a “system.”
(The term “system” is engineering jargon for a collection of personnel, equipment, operations processes, logistics procedures, and documentation that come together to perform a specific job.)
However, animals may be crossed-trained for more than one system to better serve the needs of the Fleet. The term “mark” (MK for short) is military jargon for a type of thing within a category. There are 5 marine mammal systems called MK 4, MK 5, MK 6, MK 7, and MK 8. MK 4, MK 7, and MK 8 use dolphins, MK 5, which uses sea lions, and MK 6 uses both sea lions and dolphins.
These human/animal teams can be deployed within 72 hours of notice and can be rapidly transported by ship, aircraft, helicopter, and land vehicles to potential regional conflicts or staging areas all over the world. They regularly participate in major Fleet exercises.
These animals are released almost daily untethered into the open ocean, and since the program began, only a few animals have not returned.

The Mark 6 System

• MK 6 MMS was first operationally deployed with dolphins during the Vietnam War from 1971 to 1972, and Bahrain from 1986 to 1987.
• MK 6 has now been expanded to include specially trained sea lions to locate water-borne intruders and suspicious objects near piers and ships that pose a possible threat to military forces in the area. They have been shown to be effective under and around ships, piers, and in open water.
• The sea lions were deployed to Bahrain as part of the effort to support missions under Operation Enduring Freedom.

Read more on the Navy’s site.

My Experience Diving Against Dolphins

If you’ve read my memoir, The Red Circle, you know about my time diving closed-circuit (no bubbles) Drager against the US Navy’s Dolphins. The Marine Mammal Unit would often work them into our training dives, although we admittedly knew very little about their capabilities. We just knew that you didn’t want to get hit by them – it was not a pleasant experience for those SEALs that got nailed in the murky night water.

Navy SEAL With The LAR V Drager

There were always rumors in the UDT/SEAL Teams about the CO2 anti-swimmer cartridges used by the dolphins. The concept is a simple one: dolphin hits an enemy diver with a CO2 dart that injects him with compressed nitrogen, diver has an embolism, and diver is dead. It’s a very efficient and extremely hard to defend against.
I recently phoned two of my former colleagues who are still on active duty and asked them if they could confirm the rumor, and neither could. So I asked myself the question, did the US Navy EVER consider CO2 darts with regards to harbor anti-swimmer defense? I was shocked to find open source evidence that appears to admit that yes, they did.
A while back Wired Magazine’s Danger Room interviewed the Marine Mammal Program’s Public Affairs Officer Tom LaPuzza on this topic.
Wired Magazine’s Interview Dialogue:
Excerpt Question: But given their capabilities, was there never a temptation to turn marine mammals into lethal weapons?
“Absolutely not”, insists LaPuzza, although there have been rumors for decades about a sinister “Swimmer Nullification Program” since Vietnam days.

SOFREP Confirms The CO2 Death Injection

I was digging through historical documents on the US Navy Marine Mammal Systems (MMS) program and came across an old PowerPoint slide pictured below that specifically mentioned the CO2 Dart System.
I also received confirmation that the weaponized dolphin program does in fact exist, at least in the late nineties when our anonymous Navy SEAL source was diving against them in several combat diver tests. He was actually involved in over a dozen dolphin vs. combatant swimmer operations.

Anonymous Navy SEAL:
“One of the MK 6 dolphins was named Jake and he was a real bastard to dive against. All the dolphins were very intelligent but none matched Jake’s aggression. They eventually retired him and I heard that this dolphin actually had enemy diver KIA.
We would do several dives a day and try everything to avoid detection, hiding under boats next to the keel, stirring up silt from the bottom, and hiding among pier pilings. Nothing worked to our advantage, the longest time it took one of the dolphins to find and simulate a kill on 7 pairs of divers was within minutes.
The dolphins would have their simulated CO2 system attached to their nose, they would then ram us in the chest cavity to simulate the injection. The dolphins could kill just with this force alone (we had to dive with special padding) but the idea was to recover the bodies and any intelligence.
I actually saw one of the heavy gauge needles that attaches to their nose along with the harness and CO2 containers that were positioned just behind the head. They’re incredibly smart mammals and not pleasant to dive against.” -Anonymous Navy SEAL
I guess the rumors are confirmed. So be careful Mr. Terrorist, you may want to avoid diving around high profile U.S. harbors, that is, unless you want bulging eyes and an exploding chest cavity.
Side note: You’ll have to read The Red Circle if you want to know how to defeat a MK 6 Dolphin.

 

World’s First Amphibious Car Revealed

From World Auto News:  World’s First Amphibious Car Revealed

The world's first amphibious sports car is all set to hit the roads soon.

The amphibious sports car can hit speeds of up to 180 mph (290 kmh) on land and 41 mph (72 kmh) in the water. The appropriately-named, Sea Lion, comes with a price tag of $295,000 which will be exclusively sold in U.S.

(Photo: Fantasy Junction press release) - Designer Mark Witt designed a amphibious sports car called the Sea Lion in hopes of breaking the world speed limit. 

The Sea Lion and has extraordinary stainless steel exteriors made of brushed aluminium. It was designed by Mark Witt, who came up with the concept from the scratch, with an objective of breaking the amphibious world speed record.

The previous record on land for an amphibious car was 125 mph. Technical specifications reveal that the model comes with 174 horsepower 13B rotary engine and it has been inspired by the 1974 Mazda RX3.
"The Sea Lion has been customized for high speed on land," Witt told reporters. "The speed on water has been restricted to Sea Lion's power and improvements may be done late perhaps. The water speed will upgrade by the use of a Renesis RX8 engine unit."

The latest roadster will be up for sale at a California-based Fantasy Junction where the event will witness an exhibition of automobiles and vintage racing cars.

150 years later, sunken ship still fascinates

From Star News (NC):  150 years later, sunken ship still fascinates

More than 100 scholars and Civil War enthusiasts are expected to gather Tuesday at the University of North Carolina Wilmington for a symposium on one of the Lower Cape Fear's most famous shipwrecks.

Students from the East Carolina University Program for Maritime Studies work on the ongoing conservation of artifacts from the Modern Greece shipwreck at the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the N.C. Division of Archives and History at Fort Fisher.
Mike Spencer

Facts

GO
What: Open house at the Underwater Archaeology Center
When: 10 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. June 27
Where: 1528 Fort Fisher Blvd., next to the Fort Fisher State Historic Site Visitors' Center
Tikcets: Free
Details: 458-9042

The symposium marks the 150th anniversary of the sinking of the blockade runner Modern Greece off Fort Fisher in 1862 and the 50th anniversary of its first excavation in 1962 by U.S. Navy divers.

The Tuesday event is already a sellout, said Chris Fonvielle, associate professor of history at UNCW and one of the symposium's organizers. UNCW Media Productions is working to arrange a live feed of the sessions online.

Members of the public, meanwhile, are invited to an open house at the state of North Carolina's Underwater Archaeology Branch, 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p,m. Wednesday at the branch's facilities, next to the Fort Fisher State Historic Site off U.S. 421 south of Kure Beach.

Guided tours will offer a look at rifles, hand tools and other pieces of cargo recovered from the Modern Greece. Visitors will also see the artifact conservation lab and new storage tanks made possible by the N.C. Preservation Consortium said Mark Wilde-Ramsing, deputy state archaeologist, who heads the branch.

A panel of experts will be on hand at the nearby Fort Fisher State Historic Site to answer visitors' questions, Wilde-Ramsing said. In addition, a videographer from the state will record first-person stories from divers and others who recall work on the Modern Greece in the 1960s.

At noon Wednesday, state Cultural Resources Secretary Linda Carlisle, Kure Beach Mayor Dean Lambeth and other officials will unveil a new sign commemorating the Modern Greece at the northern, ocean-side gazebo at Fort Fisher. 

A 210-foot-long, 520-ton steam freighter, the Modern Greece ran aground in the surf off Fort Fisher before dawn on June 27, 1862, while trying to evade U.S. Navy vessels. The British-built vessel had been bound for Wilmington with a cargo of Whitworth cannon, Enfield rifle-muskets, bayonets, bullets, hand tools, cutlery, medicine and other items meant for Confederate forces in the American Civil War.

Much of the Modern Greece's cargo was salvaged in the days and weeks after the wreck, Fonvielle said. Eventually, the vessel slipped beneath the sands, its location known only to a few local mariners.

In 1962, U.S. Navy divers rediscovered the wreck, which had been uncovered by storms. A major recovery operation yielded more than 11,500 artifacts and helped lead to the founding of North Carolina's underwater archaeology program.

Former UNCW Chancellor James Leutze, a military historian, will chair the symposium in the Azalea Coast Room at the Fisher University Union. 

Speakers will include Stephen R. Wise of the Parris Island Museum, author of "Lifeline of the Confederacy" and an authority on blockade running; Robert M. Browning Jr., chief historian of the U.S. Coast Guard and an authority on the Union blockade; Kevin Foster, former chief of the Marine Heritage Program with the National Park Service; and Gordon P. Watts Jr., former co-director of the underwater archaeology program at East Carolina University.

Among other guests, Fonvielle said, will be Andrew "Punky" Kure of Kure Beach, one of the first divers to explore the Modern Greece site, and Leslie Bright, a longtime artifact conservator with the underwater archaeology lab at Fort Fisher.

Fonvielle said organizers hope to raise enough money from the event to underwrite a documentary film about the Modern Greece and its excavation.

 

WWII plane wreck not Stuka, but larger JU88

From Yahoo News: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/15/wwii-plane-wreck-not-stuka-but-larger-ju88/?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fworld+%28Internal+-+World+Latest+-+Text%29&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&intcmp=obnetwork#ixzz1yM6I36Fy">WWII plane wreck not Stuka, but larger JU88

BERLIN – It looked like a Stuka, partly buried in the muck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, but researchers now say the wreck German military divers have been recovering for the past week is a totally different — though nearly as rare — World War II aircraft.
German Military Historical Museum spokesman Capt. Sebastian Bangert said Friday that enough of the plane has now been recovered to make clear it is not a single-engined JU87 Stuka divebomber, but a twin-engine JU88 aircraft.
The two Junkers planes shared several parts — including the engines on many models — and from the way it sat in the seabed Bangert says it appeared to have been a JU87.
But now that a wing section is up, it's clearly the larger JU88, he said, talking from the deck of the German Navy ship being used in the recovery.
Instead of looking at the partially-buried whole wing and the engine on the front of a JU87, it was clear they had been looking at the tip of a JU88 wing and the engine that once hung underneath it, he said.
"It looked just like the Stuka in the underwater pictures — everything that we had brought up had been pieces that were used in the JU87 — so there was no reason to doubt it," he said. "But this find is perhaps historically even more important."
Perhaps more importantly, the divers have also found human remains, including a partial skull, which they hope to be able to identify.
"Right now there is someone who just knows that their grandfather or great grandfather went missing in the war, to give that person closure is our goal," Bangert said. "And for us as a history museum, the aircraft is the only way to convey the information ... the history behind it, the personnel, how did they live, what did they experience, that is what we want to tell."
The Junkers JU87 — known by most as the Stuka, which is short for the German word for dive bomber or "Sturzkampfflugzeug" — is better known than the JU88, though far more of the latter were produced.
The JU87 was a single-engine monoplane that carried sirens that produced a distinctive and terrifying screaming sound as it dove vertically to release its bombs or strafe targets with its machine guns.
The twin-engined JU88 also served as a dive bomber, but took on multiple roles, including as a tactical bomber and a night fighter.
There are only a few intact or virtually intact JU88s still in existence — including one at the RAF Museum in London, which coincidentally has one of two complete JU87 Stukas on display.
There are also several recovered wrecks of both planes.
The recovery operation is wrapping up on Friday, but with more than half the plane still buried at the bottom of the Baltic, Bangert said the hope is that they will be able to return to the site at a later date to complete the job.
It will eventually be displayed at the German Historical Museum's Air Force Museum at the former Gatow airport in Berlin.

How a man found a sunken 115-foot fishing boat in the 62K-square mile Sea of Cortez

From the Contra Costa Times:  How a man found a sunken 115-foot fishing boat in the 62K-square mile Sea of Cortez

Nearly a year after his stepfather's Mexican charter fishing boat sank in the Sea of Cortez, and after four exhaustive search expeditions, Joe Jacinto stood aboard a boat last week looking at a sonar image of the wreckage he tracked to the depths below him.

The 46-year-old was supposed to have joined his stepfather Al Mein on the Erik for the ill-fated fishing trip last year, but canceled three weeks before due to a work conflict.
For the past year, Joe Jacinto has spearheaded a long-shot search effort for the 115-foot fishing vessel. Since the Erik sank July 3, 2011 in 20- to 40-foot swells, Jacinto and his small crew have covered 40 square miles, paying for some of the efforts themselves and using money raised by families to help defray other costs. Of the 27 Northern California fishermen on board, one is known to have died, 19 survived and seven, including Jacinto's stepfather, remain missing.
Often frustrated, Jacinto -- an avid fisherman and advanced boater who coordinated his searches from his garage in Clarksburg, near Sacramento -- persisted with the search, buoyed by the hopes of mourning relatives who on Sunday spent their first Father's Day without their loved ones.
In the end, it took the help of a grizzled shipwreck locator, expensive sonar equipment, a shrimping boat, a man vacationing from Colorado, Google maps and a strong dose of "fisherman's luck," Jacinto said, to find the boat. He even tracked down the Erik's

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captain, who fought his emotions to spend two days on the water with Jacinto helping with the search."It was a tough nut to crack," Jacinto said from his cell phone as he drove back from Mexico.

The search begins

Less than 24 hours after the Erik sank stern-first into the Sea of Cortez, Jacinto traveled to Mexico, rented boats and cruised the crash site searching for his stepfather and other survivors. After nine days of futile rescue efforts by Mexican government officials, it turned into a recovery operation; with his water experience, Jacinto soon found himself the coordinator.

He first traveled south of the border in August, tracking down every tip he got. With little time or money to waste, he got more efficient on future trips in November and February, contracting Santa Cruz-based Adventure, Depth and Technology and Capt. Wings Stocks, a 40-year veteran who had three high-tech side-scan sonar modules. Jacinto began obsessively tracking his grid searches on Google maps to avoid overlap.

The captain and shrimp

Jacinto had another mission -- to find the captain of the Erik. Going to his San Felipe home proved fruitless, but Jacinto eventually found him in Mexicali. The pair met for three hours.

"It was extremely emotional for him. I tried to structure the meeting to keep it just to business," Jacinto said. The captain could not pinpoint where the ship sank because he had no GPS and it was nighttime so he had no land references.
Jacinto convinced the captain to join him on a search, and the pair spent two days at sea.
Jacinto is keeping to himself details of the night the Erik sank. Mexican authorities have been investigating, but no report has been released. Some families want those answers more than others.
Jacinto's best tips came from six commercial shrimp trawlers whose nets got tangled in unidentified objects. Unlike in the United

States, however, they would often simply free their equipment and resume fishing, without charting those objects or radioing authorities about them, so Jacinto got only vague locations.Jacinto offered fishermen $100 for tips and $400 for any that led to the wreckage. He got more than 30, including one in March about a shrimper that caught its net in something near Gonzaga Bay.

'No high-fiving'

One of Jacinto's best contacts was Sergius Hanson, a 61-year-old amateur shipwreck hunter from Littleton, Colo., who vacations along the Sea of Cortez. In April, Jacinto asked Hanson to check out that Gonzaga Bay tip. Using his fishing sonar, Hanson charted the area and sent back the images. They were inconclusive, Jacinto said, but piqued his interest enough for him to ask a nearby villager to further investigate. That villager dragged a piece of metal from the end of a rope off his boat, marking each time it clanked against the underwater object and charting the dimensions. The object roughly matched the Erik's size.

All along, Jacinto kept much of his information secret, not wanting to upset the presumed widows and other grieving family members.
A sonar image from the Gonzaga Bay site came back last week showing portholes and other ship features. A dive confirmed the object was the Erik, resting vertically with its stern on the sea floor.
"There was no high-fiving," he said. "It's solemn. We immediately went into overdrive. There was no time to waste."
Jacinto won't say where the wreckage is, only that it's "beyond recreational scuba" deep.
Now, the grieving families must decide whether to spend more money to dive into the wreck.
"It's taking us 10 steps back, so I need to be more thoughtful on how I want to proceed," said May Lee of San Ramon, the wife of missing sailor Don Lee. But she is grateful for the discovery.
"The only thing I can think about is my husband is no longer lost at sea and that brings me comfort."
 

US sues to force return of dinosaur to Mongolia

From the Wall Street Journal: US sues to force return of dinosaur to Mongolia


NEW YORK — The fossil of a dinosaur that roamed the earth 70 million years ago should be turned over to the United States by an auction house so that it can be returned to its home in Mongolia, a lawsuit brought by the U.S. government demanded Monday.

The nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton was imported from Great Britain to Gainesville, Fla., in March 2010 with erroneous claims that it originated in Great Britain and was worth only $15,000, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

It sold at auction on May 20 for more than $1 million even though Mongolia's president had obtained a temporary restraining order from Texas State Civil District Judge Carlos R. Cortez prohibiting its auction, the suit said. The completion of the sale was made contingent upon the outcome of any court proceedings. The suit did not identify the buyer.

James T. Hayes Jr., head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations in New York, said criminal smugglers misrepresented the fossil to customs officials when they illegally imported it into the United States.

Jim Halperin, cofounder of the The Heritage Auctions, a defendant in the lawsuit, said: "We auctioned the Tyrannosaurus bataar conditionally, subject to future court rulings, so this matter is now in the hands of lawyers and politicians."

He added: "We believe our consignor purchased fossils in good faith, then spent a year of his life and considerable expense identifying, restoring, mounting and preparing what had previously been a much less valuable matrix of unassembled, underlying bones. We sincerely hope there will be a just and fair outcome for all parties."

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a news release that the skeletal remains are "of tremendous cultural and historic significance to the people of Mongolia, and provide a connection to the country's prehistoric past. When the skeleton was allegedly looted, a piece of the country's natural history was stolen with it, and we look forward to returning it to its rightful place."

The release included a quote from Tsakhia Elbegdorj, Mongolia's president, saying he was thankful for the legal action to recover the skeleton, calling it "an important piece of the cultural heritage of the Mongolian people."

He added: "Cultural looting and profiteering cannot be tolerated anywhere and this cooperation between our governments is a large step forward to stopping it."

The lawsuit said the dinosaur's remains were believed to have been discovered in the Gobi Desert between 1995 and 2005. An auction house catalog listing of the skeleton said it measures 24-feet long and 8-feet tall, the suit said.

A June 5 examination by at least five experts specializing in bataars resulted in unanimous agreement that the skeleton was a Tyrannosaurus bataar and almost certainly originated in the Nemegt Basin in Mongolia.
One expert, Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar, head of Paleontological Laboratory and Museum in Mongolia, said in a document filed with the lawsuit that it appeared some part of the skeleton's skull and postcranium were destroyed by poachers who lacked professional knowledge about proper excavation techniques.

U.S. authorities said Tyrannosaurus bataars were first discovered in 1946 during a joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition to the Gobi Desert in the Mongolian Omnogovi Province. Since 1924, Mongolia has enacted laws declaring fossils to be the property of the government of Mongolia and criminalizing their export from the country.

Swedish scientists reveal findings of deep-sea 'alien' hunt

From FoxNews:  Swedish scientists reveal findings of deep-sea 'alien' hunt

wedish explorers have put to rest speculation of a spaceship at the bottom of the Baltic -- but they're adding fuel to the ‘what is it’ mystery of this deep-sea object anyway.

Digital pictures FoxNews.com has obtained from the team show that the object, located beneath the waves of the Baltic between Sweden and Finland, is some sort of “natural, geological formation,” Peter Lindberg, the leader of the Ocean Explorer team, told FoxNews.com.

“It’s not obviously an alien spacecraft. It’s not made of metal,” the scientist said. Lindberg concedes that it could be an alien space ship -- if the aliens decided to make their vessels out of meteor-like rocks. “Who says they had to use metal?” he joked. “This trip has raised a lot of questions.”

For 12 days, starting on June 1, 2012, Lindberg, his partner Dennis Asberg, and other scientists and divers explored the 200-foot wide object under the Baltic that they had first discovered a year ago on sonar. Employing a robot camera, sonar and deep sea divers, this time, Lindberg and Asberg spent nearly two weeks probing the object and its environs.

Scientists are still examining the footage from the expedition, but it appears like a giant stone, “the kind divers see in keys and harbors” -- one that seems to originate from before the Ice Age, Lindberg said. The main object was not the only thing seen by the explorers. “There are other, loose stones lying around as well,” he added. “The formation of rocks is 60 meters in diameter.”

While this unidentified flying object may have been identified, and likely never flew, it still holds secrets.
The odd thing about the discovery is that there is no silt on the rock, for example; it would ordinarily be covered with silt on the bottom of the sea, Lindberg said.

Even more odd for a seemingly natural formation, the main object is disc-shaped and “appears to have construction lines and boxes drawn on it,” Lindberg said. “There are also straight edges.”

The divers were limited in what they could see by their lighting technology. This gave them an illumination of only one meter at the most. Sonar was used to explore the object as well.

“The surface has cracks on it,” said Lindberg. “There is some black material in the cracks, but we don’t know what it is.”

Adding to the mystery, there appears to be a pillar which is holding up the 200 foot wide object, said Lindberg. “The pillar is eight meters high,” he added.

Divers explored the space, slowly, so as not to stir up undersea silt and interfere with digital photography. They collected stone samples from nearby the object as well as sonar images and digital images. “We’re going through the footage right now,” said Lindberg, who promised more footage for FoxNews after the team finished screening it.

“If an intelligent life form has built a spaceship, there’s the question of ‘why not make it out of stone or coral,’ he said.”

The discovery of what may or may not be the wreckage of an alien spacecraft that crash landed years ago off their sea coast has not created great anxiety in the populace of Sweden, a traditionally urbane and world weary culture. The oceanic equivalent of Roswell, N.M. is pretty much routine fare there, it seems.
“They’re taking it very cooly,” Lindberg told FoxNews.com. “If we had found actual aliens, they probably would say, ‘Oh, there are aliens down there.’"

"The Americans and the Japanese are much more excited.”

Old aircraft wreckage found on Alaska glacier

From Yahoo News: Old aircraft wreckage found on Alaska glacier

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Military officials said on Thursday they had found what is believed to be old aircraft wreckage, along with some possible bone tissue, scattered on a glacier near Anchorage.

The wreckage was spotted on Sunday when Alaska Army National Guardsmen were conducting a helicopter training flight in the Knik Glacier region northeast of Anchorage, officials from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson said.

"It looks like it is a military aircraft," said Air Force Master Sergeant Mikal Canfield, a spokesman for the Anchorage base. No other details about the wreckage were available, he said.

The base called the wreck possibly "historic" and said the Federal Aviation Administration had issued a temporary flight restriction for the area, but did not elaborate.

Nothing has been taken from the site, pending further investigation, Canfield said.

At the request of Alaska military officials, the Hawaii-based U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) is trying to plan a recovery mission at the Knik Glacier site, a spokeswoman said.

JPAC, which focuses on search and recovery missions for missing U.S. service members, hopes to schedule an Alaska trip and line up necessary expertise to work on the glacier, said Captain Jamie Dobson, a spokeswoman for the command.

"We believe that there's a reason for JPAC to be involved," she said.

 

NASA goes underwater (and goes social) to get set for asteroid mission

From MSNBC.com: NASA goes underwater (and goes social) to get set for asteroid mission

If NASA’s underwater practice session is any indication of what a real space mission to an asteroid will be like, you can expect to follow along with the exploration of a near-Earth asteroid via Facebook, Twitter and the Web — or whatever takes their place by the year 2025. There’s a string of chats and webcasts that let you in on the action at the Aquarius deep-sea habitat during the simulated mission, known as NEEMO 16.

As the "16" suggests, the space agency has been doing NEEMO — NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations — for more than a decade. The idea is to simulate the logistics associated with an extended space mission, as well as the isolation, by sending an astronaut crew into the Aquarius, 63 feet (19 meters) below the Atlantic Ocean's surface in the Florida Keys, and have them practice the routines they'd be doing in scuba gear.

This summer's 12-day simulation began on Monday with the four-person crew's "splashdown" into the sea. The NEEMO 16 crew is headed by NASA astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, who flew into space on the shuttle Discovery in 2010, and also includes Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, British astronaut Timothy Peake and Cornell astronomer Steve Squyres (who's the top scientist on the Mars rover team, the chairman of the NASA Advisory Council, and a veteran of NEEMO 15). Aquarius habitat technicians Justin Brown and James Talacek play support roles underwater.

Last year marked the first time that the NEEMO exercise was designed in line with the space agency's current plan to send a crew to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025. This year, the four-person crew will bring even more of a sense of realism to the simulation: For instance, they're communicating with an onshore Mission Control team on a delayed basis, to reflect the light travel times that would be involved with a deep-space mission.

They're also experimenting with different ways to explore an asteroid-style surface. Because a small asteroid has nearly negligible gravity, astronauts won't be able to tramp across it as if it were Earth or even the moon. One option would be to use attachment points and handholds to move across the asteroid surface. Another option would be to use mini-spacecraft to hover over and touch down on the surface. Both techniques are being tested during NEEMO 16.

During the latter part of the simulation, Nuytco's DeepWorker one-person submersibles will be deployed for underwater excursions by the NEEMO aquanauts. "They get flown around the reef with their personal transporters," Saul Rosser, operations director for the Aquarius Reef Base, told me today.

The crew members also plan to conduct a variety of experiments that play off the fact that the atmospheric pressure inside the Aquarius habitat is equal to the surrounding water pressure at depth — which is about 2.5 times the air pressure at the surface. The experiments will show whether simple tasks such as blowing a bubble or operating a remote-controlled device are tougher at high pressure than they are at normal pressure.

To add a social-media angle, folks who are following the NEEMO mission will be invited to predict the outcome of each experiment. Starting on Thursday, watch for announcements on the following forums: NASA's NEEMO Facebook page and Twitter account, the JSC Education Facebook page and "Teaching From Space" Twitter account, and the European Space Agency's Facebook page and Twitter account. This NASA Web page provides details on how to compete, and what you can win.

You can also monitor the NEEMO 16 mission via the this Ustream live-video page or this Aquarius webcam page, and watch for updates on Flickr and YouTube. Web-streamed educational activities are planned every day for the next week and beyond, in cooperation with the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. The interactive webcasts will be supplemented by chat capability.

The Aquarius Reef Base is the world's only undersea research station, situated three and a half miles (5.6 kilometers) off Key Largo on a sandy patch of seafloor sitting next to spectacular coral reefs. It's owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and operated by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. NEEMO ranks among the highlights of Aquarius' research season, but Rosser said there's more to come.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Aquarius' founding, and to mark the occasion, Rosser and his colleagues are planning an underwater extravaganza next month. He was reluctant to provide the details, but a sneak peek that was posted online says the golden-anniversary mission will be led by two pioneers of marine science, Sylvia Earle and Mark Patterson.

"Stay tuned," Rosser said.

WWII German bomber wreck hauled up from sea

From English.Eastday: WWII German bomber wreck hauled up from sea

GERMAN military divers are working to hoist the wreck of a Stuka dive bomber from the floor of the Baltic Sea, a rare example of the plane that once wreaked havoc over Europe as part of the Nazis' war machine during World War II.

The single-engine monoplane carried sirens that produced a distinctive and terrifying screaming sound as it dove vertically to release its bombs or strafe targets with its machine guns. There are only two complete Stukas still around.

The Stuka wreck, first discovered in the 1990s when a fisherman's nets snagged on it, lies about 10 kilometers off the coast of the German Baltic island of Ruegen, in about 18 meters of water.

The divers have been working over the past week to prepare the bomber to be hoisted to the surface, using fire hoses to carefully free it from the sand. They have already brought up smaller pieces and also hauled up its motor over the weekend.

They are now working to free the main 9-meter fuselage piece and expect to bring it up today, depending on the weather, said Captain Sebastian Bangert, a spokesman from the German Military Historical Museum in Dresden, which is running the recovery operation.

Initial reports are that it is in good condition despite having spent the last seven decades at the bottom of the sea, he said.

The Junkers JU87 - known by most as the Stuka, which is short for the German word for dive bomber 'Sturzkampfflugzeug" - first saw service in the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War, being sent by Hitler to help the fascists.

The only two known complete Stukas are on display at the Royal Air Force Museum in London and at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, United States. Both are later models.

Oil-spill money fuels tourism efforts

From Houma Today: Oil-spill money fuels tourism efforts

With summer travel season kicking into full swing, Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes are hoping an influx of advertising will attract more visitors and provide an economic boost to the area.

The two parishes are in the middle of marketing campaigns bankrolled by BP, whose 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill still has local tourist attractions fighting lingering concerns and misconceptions.

“We had a serious downswing with the oil spill,” said Captain Ron “Black” Guidry, who has operated Cajun Man Swamp Tours out of Gibson for 25 years. “I'm proud to say we are holding our own though, and things are starting to get better. We are not setting any records, but we are starting to see things pick up.”

Sharon Alford, executive director of the Houma Area Convention and Visitors bureau, said misconceptions birthed from the oil spill about fish and environment still haunt some tourist attractions.

She and others hope the marketing campaigns will help.

Terrebonne and Lafourche are spending $2.1 million. The money is part of a $78 million agreement between the state and BP. The state dispersed the money to all 64 parishes, with the six most affected — including the two local parishes — receiving the most.

Most of the parishes' immediate efforts have gone toward advertising and marketing.

Lafourche, which has spent just under $1 million so far, is primarily using the money to push its “Dig In” advertising campaign. The name of the campaign is based on the French meaning of Lafourche, which means “the fork,” said Julie Barrilleaux, the parish's special events coordinator.

The parish has paid for out-of-parish billboards and radio ads with Louisiana radio personality and former New Orleans Saint Bobby Hebert, which highlight the parish's dining and fishing attractions along with local tours.

Money has been used to revamp the parish's online presence with DigInLafourche.com, which links to local tourist attractions.

Parish officials are also taking the campaign to New Orleans for trade shows and conventions such as those held by the AARP and Kiwanis Club, Barrilleaux said.

“We are really looking to tap the New Orleans market,” Barrilleaux said. “It's important to people visiting New Orleans who might not know about all we have to offer.”

Aside from advertising, Lafourche has also spent money developing and hosting websites for local charter-boat captains, a group Barrilleaux said is one of the hardest hit by the spill and is most in need of the connectivity the Internet provides. The parish will pay to host the websites until Jan. 1.

Local charter captains gave mixed signals about the recovery and use of the new websites.

Eddie Berthelot of Spots and Specks Charters in Galliano said he hasn't had any visitors to his website.

“I'm sure it would be very helpful, but we just haven't had anybody find it yet,” Berthelot said. “I've went out the past three weekends and couldn't ask for any better fishing. We just need more advertising because folks are still scared of the oil.”

Terrebonne has taken a similar route in regard to the focus of its advertising, seeking to brand Houma as the “saltwater fishing capital of the world,” said Janel Ricca, director of the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center.

Ricca has worked on the effort with officials from parish government and the Houma Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Though the entities have been working together, the parish is ultimately responsible for how the money is spent.

Terrebonne has spent about $411,000 on the saltwater-fishing advertising with ads appearing on television, billboards and in SEC football programs, said Terrebonne Planning Director Pat Gordon.

Officials from both parishes said locals likely won't see the advertising as it is primarily aimed at people at least 50 miles outside the parish.

Money will also be used to design and purchase new road signs and information kiosks for the parish, Ricca said.

Along with advertising, both parishes have provided ways for local organizations to apply for grant money to organize festivals or events.

Though some charter captains reported ongoing malaise tied to the spill, Marty LaCoste, who runs Absolute Fishing Charters out of Dularge, said business has never been better.

“My business is having the busiest year I've ever had,” said LaCoste, who has been running charter trips for about seven years. “Advertising is important, and the Internet is key for me.”

Both parishes said judging the results of their efforts so far is best done through the local businesses, though Gordon said collections from the Hotel-Motel tax are strong.

Barrilleaux also commented that the parish had 30 million ad impressions, or appearances, on Facebook pages spanning multiple countries.

Looking past summer, Terrebonne is also spending recovery money on a rebranding campaign for the parish that will see a new slogan and logo developed. The new brand is set to be unveiled at the end of this month after researchers spent months conferring with locals through surveys and focus groups to develop the new brand, Gordon said.

“We hope that in 10 years, we can look at this (money) still pushing our tourism,” Gordon said.

Phone-controlled robotic submarine turns anyone into a hi-def Jacques Cousteau

From Daily Mail Online: Phone-controlled robotic submarine turns anyone into a hi-def Jacques Cousteau

Until now, filming underwater has required teams of divers and expensive underwater camera rigs - but a new iPad-controlled robot does the lot itself.

The battery-powered Aquabotix Hydroview shoots in Full HD and swims independently, letting users see through its eyes with an app that works on iPads, smartphones and Windows laptops.

The $4,000 machine comes with a 75-foot cable and battery pack that lets it 'swim' for three hours - its makers suggest the tiny submarine could be used to find lost keys underwater, or for underwater documentaries.

The Aquabotix Hydroview shoots in Full HD and swims independently, letting users see through its eyes with an app that works on iPads, smartphones and Windows laptops.

Complete with on-board LED lights for underwater, the HydroView travels at up to five knots forward and one knot in reverse while shooting video or capturing still images at depths up to 150 feet down.

It can also capture information on water conditions.

The Hydroview costs $4,000 - more prosaically, you can also 'explore the depths' with a camera mounted on a boat hook for just $475.

The HydroView communicates wirelessly from the user’s handheld device to the HydroView’s top-side box, which is in-turn connected to the submersible via a cable tether.

Tthe HydroView measures just 14.6x19x7 inches and weighs nine pounds - and the finished model shoots in Full HD, although the early demo video below is in lower definition.

‘Every kid dreams of exploring the oceans but few of us truly experience life under the sea. Now, with the HydroView, if you can operate an iPad you can ply the depths like Jacques Cousteau,’ said Durval Tavares,CEO of Aquabotix.

‘Whether you are a charter boat owner looking to entertain your guests, a commercial captain looking to confirm vessel conditions below the waterline or a first responder looking for a quick and safe way to survey a submerged scene, the HydroView delivers a safe and dry, up-close experience with the underwater world.’

An excuse to stir up trouble

The drawing accompanying this article from China Daily shows an evil looking octopus with an Uncle Sam top hat on its head...

Interesting to read their point of view of us!:

From China Daily - an op ed: An excuse to stir up trouble
The United States is one of the countries that helped shape the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and its subsequent revisions, but as yet the US has still not signed it.

However, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently urged US legislators to approve the country's accession to the convention, saying that joining the convention would secure US navigational rights and its ability "to challenge other countries' behavior on the firmest and most persuasive legal footing, including in critical areas such as the South China Sea".

It is the US' global strategy adjustment that has prompted this change of heart. The US is rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific region and cannot wait to interfere in the South China Sea disputes using the legal framework of the convention, especially as China and the Philippines are locked in a naval standoff near Huangyan Island. This is fully demonstrated by Clinton's remarks that the US is ceding the legal high ground to China and is not as strong an advocate for its friends and allies as it would like to be.

However, even if the US does finally ratify the convention, it will not become a concerned party in the South China Sea. It is not and never will be, as it is sovereignty disputes over islands in the South China Sea that are the issue and the US has no sovereignty claims.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, with due regard for the sovereignty of all states, establishes "a legal order for the seas and oceans which will facilitate international communication, and will promote the peaceful uses of the seas and oceans, the equitable and efficient utilization of their resources, the conservation of their living resources, and the study, protection and preservation of the marine environment".

The convention, therefore, clarifies and regulates a country's maritime interests extending from established sovereignty. The convention per se plays no part in resolving disputes over sovereignty. Hence, the US and its allies in the region are doomed to fail in their attempt to dispute China's sovereignty and historical title over the islands in the South China Sea by manipulating the convention.

Besides the convention cannot be used to challenge China's sovereignty and historical title over the islands within the nine-dotted line, which was actually established long before the convention came into effect and conforms to intertemporal law. Chinese people discovered and named the islands more than 2,000 years ago and have exercised effective jurisdiction over them ever since.

Today, other claimant countries question the legitimacy of China's nine-dotted line in a bid to deny China's sovereignty over the islands and the surrounding waters. However, when China first announced the U-shaped line in the South China Sea in 1947, the international community did not oppose it, nor did any neighboring countries protest against it.

Another impetus for the US to join the convention is to justify its claim that freedom of navigation needs protecting in the South China Sea. China respects and protects freedom of navigation on the high seas in accordance with the convention and Chinese laws, however, the waters of the South China Sea are not the high seas. The US cannot enjoy absolute freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, as waters within the nine-dotted line are under China's jurisdiction and surrounding countries also claim their exclusive economic zones in this area. Freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is just another excuse used by the US to muddy the waters in the region and implement its "back to Asia" strategy.

Even if it ratifies the convention the US cannot conceal its strategic ambition and political calculation. The convention was opened for signatures in 1982, but the US refused to sign it insisting that part of the convention that concerns deep sea mining is against its interests. But, impelled by new interests, the US is now striving to become a signatory to the convention. The US should realize that once it becomes a signatory to the convention, it will have to deal with maritime affairs according to the rules and principles of the convention, which is likely to prove a challenge to the US.

Yet, even if the US becomes a party to the convention it will still be an outsider in the South China Sea.

The author is a professor of international laws at Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing.

What's Behind China's Dive Into The Marianas Trench, The Deepest Place On Earth

From International Business Times: What's Behind China's Dive Into The Marianas Trench, The Deepest Place On Earth

Not content with just spending billions on the new space race, China is reaching for the depths of the world's oceans.

Chinese explorers and scientists are now headed off to the Mariana Trench. They'll try a successful dive where James Cameron made history less than three months prior.

China's dive into the deepest place on Earth, expected to take place sometime over the next month, will only reach approximately 23,000 feet into the trench, whereas the Hollywood director's craft hit bottom at 35,755 feet. However, the Chinese vessel, the Jiaolong, named after a mythical sea dragon, will carry three scientists, while Cameron's only contained himself.

The Chinese team will be supported in their dive by a sophisticated oceanographic vessel and a group of 100 technicians, engineers and specialists.

As with China's space program, observers expect advancement in the country's deep-sea exploration capabilities to be driven by three key factors: national prestige, a sense of competition and a desire to advance scientific progress.

In 2010, China joined the U.S., France, Russia and Japan in the very exclusive group of countries capable of operating manned dives past more than 11,480 feet below the ocean surface. During a highly publicized dive that took place in the South China Sea that summer, Chinese scientists used the opportunity to plant the country's flag on the bottom of the seafloor, similar to Russia's planting of the flag at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean in 2007.

In summer 2011, the Jiaolong dived past the 16,400 foot point in the Pacific Ocean.

China has publicized the vessel as a fully indigenously developed and built submersible. The vessel is not only symbolic of China's growing maritime capabilities, but also its ambition to tap into the resources of the ocean.

Ye Cong, the lead diver on the expedition, noted to Chinese media that "the deep sea has amazing resources waiting to be discovered, such as hydrothermal sulfide and manganese nodules."

Other resources include methane hydrates, dense deposits of methane locked inside of ice crystals found on the ocean floor. The United States Geological Survey estimates that the total amount of carbon locked away inside of methane hydrates could be twice as much as the amount that exists in all the world's known fossil fuels.

Japan is currently studying the economic feasibility of conducting limited methane hydrate development off its southern seaboard, near Aichi Prefecture.

For resource- and energy-starved Asian states, further exploration into the depths could reveal valuable energy and mineral sources that could alleviate much of their current constraints. However, analysts expect the technology to economically retrieve or even prospect for such deposits in the deep ocean to be decades away.

If deep-sea mining sounds like the stuff of science fiction, Chinese scientists at least seem interested in exploring those ideas. After all, Jiaolong designer Cui Weicheng, while quick to point out that his vessel is not inferior to Cameron's Deepsea Challenger, says that China can nevertheless learn from the example set by the sci-fi director turned explorer.

High hopes for deep-sea mission

From the Jakarta Post: High hopes for deep-sea mission

Jiaolong, the manned submersible, could put China at the forefront of deep-sea exploration if attempts to dive to 7,000 meters are successful this month, a senior official involved in the project said on Sunday.

The vessel's crew, who on previous missions passed 5,000 meters, will bid to make history with a series of tests in the Pacific Ocean starting June 10.

"If it reaches the new target, it will represent major progress," said Liu Feng, deputy director of China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association, which planned the mission with the State Oceanic Administration.

"After the dive, Jiaolong will be put into use to conduct deep-sea scientific research, such as exploring for natural resources and underwater environmental surveys."

For example, he said, unlike other countries, China will be able to collect biological samples from the deepest parts of oceans.

"Some deep-sea natural resources could be utilized in our daily lives in the future, such as by the pharmaceuticals industry to develop new drugs," Liu added.

Xiangyanghong 09, the ship carrying Jiaolong, left the port city of Jiangyin in Jiangsu province on Sunday morning, heading for the Mariana Trench.

The submersible, which is 8.2 meters long and weighs nearly 22 tons, is scheduled to complete its first dive on June 10, with up to five more tests before the end of the month. It will return to China in mid-July.

In March, Hollywood director James Cameron used a specially designed submarine to become the first man to travel solo to the depths of the Mariana Trench. He reached 10,898 meters and stayed for about three hours before he began his return to the surface, the National Geographic Society reported.

However, unlike Cameron's dive, “Jiaolong will do more scientific research while underwater, and each dive may last up to 10 hours," Liu Xincheng, deputy director of the State Oceanic Administration's North China Sea branch, told China Daily.

"If the planned dive is successful, China will hold the record for performing the deepest dive, surpassing Japan, whose Shinkai 6500 dove 6,527 meters in August 1989," he said.

In 2010, Jiaolong reached a depth of 3,759 meters, making China the fifth country to acquire deep-diving technology capable of passing the 3,500-meter mark. The other countries are the United States, France, Russia and Japan.

In July, the vessel dived 5,188 meters below sea level in the Pacific Ocean, which effectively means China can conduct scientific surveys in 70 percent of the world's seabed areas.

During this month's mission, the three technicians on board will be checking for problems in the submersible's ability to withstand strong pressure and to remain watertight, Liu said.

"Several improvements have been made both to Jiaolong and its mother ship, including the operating and video systems," chief designer Xu Qinan was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency on Sunday.

He said GPS devices have also been fitted on Xiangyanghong 09 to monitor the submersible underwater.

High pressure will be the greatest challenge for Jiaolong when it attempts to dive 7,000 meters. Underwater, pressure increases at the rate of one atmosphere for every 10 meters in depth. One atmosphere is equal to about 10 metric tons of force per square meter.

The deep-sea dive will also test the crew, Fu Wentao, one of the three hydronauts, told Xinhua, "but we're full of confidence. All of us have passed physical training and several underwater simulations."

According to the State Oceanic Administration, China is working hard to build a new mother ship that will take deep-sea vessels to sites, as well as a vessel that can conduct scientific research in oceans.

Scientists say the ocean floor contains rich deposits of a range of potentially valuable minerals, but the extreme depths pose obstacles.

Divers plan to retrieve Chinese porcelain worth $43 million

From Los Angeles Times: Divers plan to retrieve Chinese porcelain worth $43 million

There's $43 million worth of 16th-century Chinese porcelain just waiting to be picked up.

One catch: It's at the bottom of the ocean, about 200 feet down, off the coast of Indonesia.

The treasure trove ended up there when the giant wooden junk that was carrying it sunk, probably when it was on its way to the city that is now Jakarta, according to Bloomberg News.

The wreckage of the Chinese merchant ship -- far larger than European ships of the time -- was discovered in 2008. In an operation two years later, 38,000 items were hauled to the surface.

But about 700,000 pieces -- including bowls, dishes and cups made during the Ming Dynasty rule of Emperor Wanli -- are still down there, according to Nikolaus Graf Sandizell, who heads the archeology company Arqueonautas Worldwide, which is planning a mission to the ship ruins.

His company, based in Portugal, aims to retrieve historical items from endangered maritime wrecks. He said the site off the coast of Indonesia is in peril because its location is known to plunderers.

Many of the pieces are well preserved, Sandizell said, because salt water has acted as a preservative. He estimated that about one-third of the items are intact.

Sandizell said the retrieval mission would cost about $6.3 million. But first, his company has to win permission from the Indonesian government, which owns the site.