The Joint Oceanographic Survey on Advanced Marine and Ecological Studies (JAMES) in the Bay of Bengal and the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean was carried out during 05th January to 17th   January, 2020 using R/V Xiang Yang Hong 06. The expedition “JAMES” carried out collaboratively by the staff of NARA, University of Ruhuna and Second Institute of Oceanography (SIO) Hangzhou, China as a result of MOU between NARA and SIO, China to obtain a 3D understanding on the key oceanic processes, such as eddies and cold dome, and traced jointly by the onboard observations along with mobile observations.

The opening ceremony was held in R/V Xiang Yang Hong 06 with the participation of Consular General of Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka. Mr. S.N.B.K.S. Senaratne, acting Chairman/NARA, Mr. W.M.N Zoysa, Director General/NARA, Dr. H.M.P. Kithsiri Deputy Director General/NARA, Mr.A.B.A.K.Gunaratne/ Director Monitoring & Evaluation/NARA, Dr. W.N.C. Priyadarshani / Division Head of National Institute of Oceanographic Marine Sciences, and cruise participants of NARA and University of Ruhuna, Prof. Tilak Gamage/ University of Ruhuna, Mr.S.U.P.Jinadasa/Ocean University from Sri Lankan side and Prof. Feng Zhou and all other Chinese Scientists from SIO.

Thirty-Eight marine scientists including six scientists from Sri Lanka were on board and engaged tightly collaborative research for publication. The Data and the findings on this ship-borne multidisciplinary large-scale survey, including the hydrology, meteorology, and biogeochemistry will support to the policy-decision makers of the Sri Lanka and Chinese governments to tackle the marine disasters.