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The "Dayang No. 1," which set sail on July 18 to carry out China's second global scientific expedition, is now sailing across deep ocean. It will spend a year investigating seabed mineral resources in areas beyond China's territorial waters. It makes China proud that following a two decade-long ocean expedition, the country has acquired exclusive prospecting rights and preferential commercial development rights to the 75,000 square kilometer multi-metal nodule mining area in the central region of the Pacific Ocean.
At the end of 2008, China had issued 46,612 Certificates for the Sea Area Use Right; 1.47 million hectares of China's seas had ownership affirmation; and the state had accumulatively collected a total sea area utilization fee of 12.4 billion yuan. The increase from 120 million yuan in 2002 to 5.89 billion yuan in 2008 has shown the sustainable development of the sea as a carrier of marine resources.
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