Directly affiliated to the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), the Second Institute of Oceanography (SIO) was established in 1966 and has developed into a non-profit oceanographic research institute with comprehensive disciplines, strong scientific and technological capabilities and advanced equipment support. It is mainly engaged in marine scientific researches on China seas, oceans and polar regions as well as the R&D and application of high technology for marine environmental protection and resources exploration.

At present, SIO has the only state key laboratory within the MNR system -- State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics and 3 key laboratories funded by MNR, a Marine Academy of Zhejiang Province co-built with Zhejiang Province, the School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Institute for Polar and Deep Ocean Technology co-built with Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In addition, SIO is also supported by some technological service institutes and systems, including center for testing and measurement and center for marine standard materials as well as the analysis and testing base  in Lin’an.

The research areas of SIO cover 5 research fields, including submarine geosciences and deep-sea exploration technique, ocean dynamic processes and numerical simulation, satellite oceanography and marine remote sensing, marine ecosystem and biogeochemistry as well as engineering oceanography. These five research fields have derived into 19 research directions, which have basically formed our own scientific innovation system and scientific research group that can meet our country’s great demands and help us gain a foothold in the world marine scientific and technological development.

The 4500-tonner marine scientific research vessel “Xiangyanghong 10”, co-built by SIO and a private enterprise, satisfies multidisciplinary research needs for deep-sea marine sciences and was listed in the National Oceanographic Research Fleet in March 2014. In the meantime, SIO also has the equipment research base in Changzhi Island of Zhoushan City, which has the ability for deep-sea exploration and development. In December 2019, the “Dayang” Oceanic Integrated Resources Research Vessel, which was built by SIO, was officially listed in the National Oceanographic Research Fleet. Affiliated to the China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association, the vessel is the first generation of oceanic integrated resources research vessel, which integrates multi-discipline, multi-function and multi-technology means, with the SIO Zhoushan base as the home port, and is operated by SIO.

At present, there are more than 420 staff in SIO, including 2 academicians of Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), 3 academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), 3 senior specialists at Zhejiang Provincial level, 3 national level innovation teams in the important field by Ministry of Science and Technology, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), 93 senior professional technicians, and 177 associate professional technicians, thus forming a team of high-quality, high-level and high-skilled talents for marine science and technology.

SIO now has 3 national-level first-class qualification certificates for marine engineering survey, marine engineering design, marine surveying and mapping respectively. SIO has also passed China Metrology Accreditation (CMA ) qualification certification and ISO 9001: 2008 Standard Certification. In the meantime, SIO is also responsible for editing and publishing a comprehensive domestic academic core journal Journal of Marine Sciences.

SIO will continue to improve academic innovation ability, enhance scientific research level, further build itself into a scientific and technological think tank that can meet the great demands of our country and become a growth cradle for leading talents in the field of marine science so as to make new contributions for the development of marine undertaking in our country.