Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) has been taking all possible measures to ensure the health of the passengers on board by instructing them to refrain from unnecessary and nonurgent outings and confirming that all scheduled to board our ships take PCR tests and test negative for the COVID-19 before sailing.

A person on board the Research Vessel for the “Tohoku Ecosystem-Associated Marine Sciences (TEAMS)” program: SHINSEI MARU, which is at the port of Kochi to prepare for the research cruise was tested positive for COVID-19 by PCR test　yesterday.
JAMSTEC and its Emergency Response Headquarters Office headed by the President will continue to take necessary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 following the instructions of the local public health center.
In response to this situation, JAMSTEC has canceled the SHINSEI MARU research cruise* which was scheduled to depart today.
If there are any changes in the situation, we will post them on the JAMSTEC website.

* Information on the SHINSEI MARU research cruise
The cruise schedule was from Friday, September 10 to Saturday, September 18.
The vessel was scheduled to research the submarine hydrothermal fields in the Okinawa Sea.

We plan to adjust the research and studies scheduled for this cruise to be carried out in future research cruises.