DSV Shinkai 2000

The Shinkai 2000 (しんかい) was a crewed research submersible that could dive up to a depth of 2,000 meters. It was completed in 1981 and until 1991 it had the greatest depth range of any crewed research vehicle in Japan. The Shinkai 2000 was owned and run by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and it was launched from the support vessel Natsushima.

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History
JapanJapan
Name	Shinkai 2000
Builder	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Kobe Shipyard
Cost	3.7billion (Japanese yen)
Laid down	1978
Launched	1981
Sponsored by	JAMSTEC
Completed	1981
Acquired	1981
Commissioned	1981
Decommissioned	2004
Maiden voyage	1983
In service	1983
Out of service	2002
Homeport	Yokosuka
Status	Preserved at Shin Enoshima aquarium
General characteristics
Type	Deep-submergence vehicle
Length	9.3 m (31 ft)
Beam	2.9 m (9.5 ft)
Draft	3.0 m (9.8 ft)
Installed power	electric motor
Speed	3.0 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph)
Endurance	80h
Test depth	2,000 m (6,600 ft)
Complement	3

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Two pilots and one researcher operated within a 30 mm thick High-strength low-alloy steel pressure hull with an internal diameter of 2.2 meters. Buoyancy was provided by syntactic foam.

Three methacrylate resin view ports were arranged at the front and on each side of the vehicle.^{[1] [2]} The deep diving submersible Shinkai 2000 is eponymous for the genus Shinkai- polychaete worms of the family Chrysopetalidae. Bivalves hosting those parasitic polychaetes were collected during Dives 315 and 381 in the Hatsushima cold-seep site in Sagami Bay.^[3] The submersible is also eponymous for the species Margarites shinkai.^[4]

Preserved at Enoshima Aquarium, Enoshima Island, Fujisawa, Kanagawa