SHIP FOR INVESTIGATING PLANKTON DISTRIBUTION

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an effective system for investigating a plankton distribution, which can concurrently collect a lot of samples in a wide water area. SOLUTION: An existing commercial liner ship (such as ferry, sightseeing ship or the like) is utilized, which sails along an investigation water area, and a water collecting device is used, which can be installed in these ships comparatively easily. The water collecting device acquires water quality data and positional information, when collecting samples, and transmits them to an analysis center. The analysis center collects a large number of these data sets, maps them on a map and displays them. According to this method, the plankton distribution can be investigated, without the need to charter a special observation boat or the like for the investigation. Especially, since shipping routes of liner ships are made close to another in inland seas, the system provided is very effective. Furthermore, by utilizing the liner ship enables positional information from a GPS and positional information by a radar from a ship-route management system to be used, the positional information at a location where the sample is acquired is obtained easily. COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT