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On June 18^th, the Jiaolong manned deep-sea submersible carried its first passenger during a deep-sea dive. The special passenger is Zhou Huaiyang, a professor of Tongji University. The deep-sea dive with a scientist aims to collecting biological and mineral samples in the cold seep of South China Sea. During the dive, Jiaolong discovered variety of large marine life for the first time.

The submersible and its crew dove to a depth of about 1,400 meters during yesterday's dive. With the direction of positioning system, Jiaolong finished a mountain climbing under the sea for a length of 300 meters. The discovery of multiple seabed dwellers, such as mussels and spider crabs, will help to support further research in the cold seep of South China Sea. According Zhou Huaiyang, they found a spider crab with legs up to 1.5 meters during the dive. The spider crab is a kind of rear marine life under the sea.

Cold seeps are areas of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occur, often in the form of a brine pool. "Cold" does not mean temperature here is lower than surrounding sea water. On the contrary, its temperature is often slightly higher. Cold seeps constitute a biome supporting several endemic species.

Cold seeps develop unique topography over time, where reactions between methane and seawater create carbonate rock formations and reefs. These reactions may also be dependent on bacterial activity.

In 1983, Cold seeps were discovered in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico during a cruise investigating the bottom of the Florida Escarpment in areas of brine seepage, where they unexpectedly discovered tubeworms and mussels. Since then, seeps have been discovered in other parts of the world's oceans.