maintenance of sea-floor instrumentation and equipment. Hand- 

 books, available to industry through the Defense Documentation 

 Center, treat subjects such as electric cable technology for deep 

 ocean application, rotary shaft-seal selection for pressure- 

 equalized, deep ocean equipment, fluids and lubricants for deep 

 ocean applications, and underwater imaging system design. Direct 

 consultation with Navy engineers by industry is encouraged, and 

 Navy test facilities and ranges are being made available to public 

 groups on reimbursable, not-to-interfere terms. Industry also makes 

 extensive use of diving technology developed largely under Navy 

 sponsorship. 



Offshore oil and gas exploration, development, and production 

 have resulted in constantly increasing vessel traffic and other forms 

 of transportation to service offshore operations and to move the 

 product to shore. Pressures have been particularly intense in the 

 shipping lanes and ports of the Gulf coast, but have also risen 

 elsewhere. They will increase markedly with the opening of the 

 trans-Alaska Pipeline and with the anticipated discovery and 

 development of oil fields in the frontier areas of the Atlantic and 

 Pacific coasts. The growing congestion of workboats, barges, 

 floating platforms, and coastal tankers has added significantly to the 

 hazard of accidents, thereby constituting one of the greatest 

 potential offshore causes of oil spills and other pollution. 



All plans submitted to USGS that involve the placement of 

 structures, drilling from floating platforms, or laying of pipelines in 

 navigable waters require review and the issuance of permits by the 

 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) to assure that they do not result 

 in obstructions to navigation. The USCG, in turn, has responsibility 

 for insuring that the structures are properly marked. Through a 

 cooperative agreement, USGS teams inspect the navigation marking 

 equipment, as well as equipment prescribed by the USCG pertaining 

 to safety of life and property on the platforms and included in 

 operating regulations and orders. 



The Houston Ship Channel, which serves as one of the main routes 

 to the offshore oil fields of the gulf and to the East coast oil terminals 

 is the site of the USCG's newest vessel traffic system. Commissioned 

 on February 4, 1975, it incorporates a reporting system for vessel 

 movement throughout the channel, from its entrance at Galveston to 

 the Houston turning basin; a communications network; and a low- 

 light-level closed-circuit television at a vessel traffic center in 

 Houston. An automated vessel movement reporting system is 

 scheduled to become operational in late 1976, and high-resolution 

 radar surveillance of the lower Galveston Bay, Bolivar Roads, and 

 the Galveston Bay entrance area will begin by early 1977. 

 Comparable traffic systems that have been installed or that are 



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