A need to educate and evaluate seafarer's skills in an adequate manner has been pointed out in order to assure the conservation of the maritime environment and the safety of ship management. The present education status in Asia, where many seafarers appear one after another, as well as roles which Japan should play are pointed out.
Selected Papers No.7(p.4)

Roles which underwater robots play in maritime investigations have become increasingly more important. At present, ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) take an active part in various fields ranging from scientific explorations to offshore oil fields. In the future, it is expected that AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) can bring us new discoveries and make it possible to perform new investigations that have been difficult in the past.

A purification vessel was built for the purpose of purifying seawater by converting from a barge (2,350 tons), and seawater purification experiments were performed in Kasaoka Bay of Okayama Prefecture and Ashiya Port of Hyogo Prefecture. The capacity of the purification of seawater is more than 6,000 tons per day, and more than 80% of the suspended solids were removed. Therefore, many kinds of problems caused by the suspended solids are expected to be solved by purification vessels.