Being first has many advantages. For Zhou Huaiyang, the first scientist to work in China’s manned scientific submersible, Jiaolong, it was a chance to explore some of the mysteries of the deep sea.

Zhou, 53, professor of the School of Ocean and Earth Science at Tongji University, worked with Jiaolong, which carried out its first scientific voyages in the South China Sea last summer to observe the ocean floor and collect samples. Jiaolong completed 10 dives with Zhou taking part in three.

Until then, Chinese scientists had always remained on the main ship as Jiaolong’s pilots sent back video images and collected limited samples from the ocean floor. “It was great to see the sea mountain and many living sea creatures with my own eyes,” Zhou said. “The view was wonderful and much clearer than the video images.”

“No matter how long I was in the sub, I always felt the time passed too quickly for me to explore the sea.”

Jiaolong’s cabin measures about 2.1 meters in diameter, but Zhou said it didn’t feel crowded despite being accompanied by two pilots.

He and the pilots took some special precautions before the dive. Zhou stopped drinking water from 8pm the night before the dive to avoid having to go to the bathroom. He also wore cotton clothes to avoid static electricity that might spark a fire in the submersible’s cabin.

Sunlight faded as Jiaolong got down into the deep from the sea surface with a velocity of about 40 meters per minute. At 200 meters below the surface, darkness completely enveloped the submersible. It also got progressively colder. The temperature dropped from about 27 degrees Celsius at the surface to about 2 degrees along the seabed.

Zhou said the sub was steady below the sea surface and he saw jelly fish and many other beautiful fluorescent creatures or particles on the way down to sea floor. Sometimes, the dotted particles looked like snow in the sea, he said.

While enjoying the beautiful scenery, Zhou also kept a sharp eye out for interesting scientific phenomena and samples.

“This is an ferromanganese nodule we collected during the dive,” Zhou said as he took a black round stone off a shelf in his office.

It marked one of the biggest discoveries of last year’s Jiaolong voyages.

The nodules were found to be extensively distributed on an elevated seamount. Both the ferromanganese nodule and another type of ferromanganese accretions called as ferromanganese crust that covers on basaltic rock samples from a small seamount of about 3,500 meters below the surface may have the potential to be alternative metal resources.

However, Zhou said it was somewhat of an accidental discovery as this voyage was not looking specifically for ferromanganese nodule or crust.

“Scientists have more experienced eyes than pilots in the observation of seafloor and they know what samples are worth collecting,” Zhou told Shanghai Daily. “The dives are more efficient when a scientist is on board.”

During the first dive, Zhou also collected many samples of mussels that were living in a cold seep site on a slope about 1,200 meters below the sea surface. A preliminary study has found some dead mussels have an age of about 10,000 years old and the species are similar to those in western Pacific. Zhou said researchers are still studying the mussels to find out more about their genetic flow.

“The discovery of mussels and pilumnus crabs will help support further research into the deep-sea biosphere, gas hydrate resources and climate change,” Zhou said.

In the 1990s, Zhou was one of the first scientists who called in China to build its own manned submersible. He is also one of the few scientists in China who has participated in a dive in a foreign submersible. In 2006, Zhou took his first dive in Alvin under a Sino-US joint deep-sea voyage.

“American scientists were very friendly and offered great help to our Chinese scientists, engineers and pilots during that cooperation, which was indispensable to the success of Jiaolong,” Zhou said.

Zhou said China still lags behind in deep-sea research compared with developed countries such as the United States, Japan, France and Russia. All four have had manned submersibles for a long time.

“The work efficiency of Jiaolong’s dives still needs to be raised,” Zhou said. Presently, because of many reasons, Jiaolong can fulfill relatively fewer tasks than a submersible like Alvin within the same time, he said.

In 2012, Jiaolong reached a record depth of 7,062 meters, making many Chinese people proud and wonder how deep sea studies can benefit everyone.

“The meaning of the dive was not to test the depth record but to better understand the sea and help to support sustainable development for the future of humanity,” Zhou said.

“Many people talk about protecting nature these days. If you don’t understand it, how can you protect it?”

A geology PhD holder from Nanjing University, Zhou was among the first batch of college students after the “cultural revolution” (1966-76). From 1988 to 1991, Zhou conducted research on mineral deposits at Institute of Geochemistry of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Zhou joined the State Oceanic Administration in 1991 and has continued research in marine geology and chemistry to this day. In 2008, Zhou joined Tongji University from Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He said it’s a good platform to conduct research while also teaching. He now teaches postgraduates. He plans to introduce a course for undergraduates within two years.

“The best professors are those who fight on the frontiers of their own studies,” Zhou said. “What they have said and done will have great influence on students, who are our future.”