"TITANIC" director James Cameron spent his birthday underwater.

Cameron, who turned 56 yesterday, dove beneath the surface of the world's deepest lake in a submersible he used to film the wreck of the Titanic, the Foundation for the Preservation of Lake Baikal said.

Cameron boarded the Mir-1 submersible and spent a few hours in Lake Baikal's waters, the Russian-based group said.

The Mir-1, less than 8 metres long, is one of two submersibles Cameron used to film the Titanic in preparation for the 1997 blockbuster.

Russia used the vessel in 2007 to plant a Russian flag on the sea floor near the North Pole.

Yesterday, it was piloted by Anatoly Sagalevich, the director of the technical council of the preservationfoundation, who invited Cameron on his first visit to Lake Baikal and gave him a hardy "hydronaut's" watch.

The sickle-shaped lake in Siberia, some 5,000 kilometers east of Moscow, is the world's oldest and deepest lake, according to UNESCO, which lists it as a World Heritage Site. It holds one-fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh water.

Ecologists say the 25 million-year-old lake - which reaches a depth of 1,637 metres - harbours 1,500 plant and animal species, including a unique freshwater seal.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who last winter signed a controversial order allowing a paper mill environmentalists say pollutes the lake to reopen, dove to the bottom of Baikal in 2008 and declared the lake clean.

Cameron, an avid deep-sea diver, has said his initialmotive in proposing to make Titanic was the hope of filming the famous wreck on the floor of the North Atlantic.

• director [di´rektə] n.指导者；....长；导演 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• foundation [faun´deiʃən] n.建立；基金；地基 (初中英语单词)
• preparation [,prepə´reiʃən] n.准备；预习(时间) (初中英语单词)
• vessel [´vesəl] n.容器；船；脉管 (初中英语单词)
• moscow [´mɔskəu] n.莫斯科 (初中英语单词)
• minister [´ministə] n.部长；大臣 v.伺候 (初中英语单词)
• motive [´məutiv] n.动机；主题 a.运动的 (初中英语单词)
• technical [´teknikəl] a.技术的；专门性的 (高中英语单词)
• species [´spi:ʃi:z] n.(生物的)种，类 (高中英语单词)
• unique [ju:´ni:k] a.唯一的 n.独一无二 (高中英语单词)
• initial [i´niʃəl] a.最初的 n.首字母 (高中英语单词)
• preservation [,prezə´veiʃən] n.保存；储藏；维护 (英语四级单词)
• heritage [´heritidʒ] n.遗产，继承物 (英语四级单词)