Piers are accessible from land and convenient to electrical 

 supply, but are restricted to even shallower water than towers. 

 Most piers have been constructed primarily for ship moorings, 

 outfalls, and so forth, and oceanographic research is a by-product. 

 A notable exception to the general situation is the pier of the 

 Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, California, which 

 was designed and built expressly for research. This pier, unique 

 in oceanographic research, extends 1, 000 feet out in the open sea 

 to water about ZO feet deep, and provides for the sampling of 

 water and the recording of tides, waves, and other sea properties. 



The other principal form of fixed platform, the tower, as 

 exemplified by the Oceanographic Research Tower, U. S. Navy 

 Electronics Laboratory, promises to be an invaluable tool in 

 extending knowledge of shallow ocean environment, including the 

 sea floor, the surface, and the water in between as well as the 

 meteorological conditions immediately above the ocean (fig. 14.1). 



With the NEL Oceanographic Research Tower, the legs are 

 hollow and through them are driven pins, 120 feet long, which pene- 

 trate the ocean bottom about 60 feet. This affords a uniquely 

 stable, fixed platform. 



A cargo boom is used to load and unload equipment from the 

 NEL tower. A boat is swung on davits from the tower and can be 

 launched to collect samples of surface foam. A cathodic protection 

 system has been in use for the past year. Its purpose is to keep 

 corrosion damage down to a negligible level. 



The knowledge provided by the NEL Oceanographic Research 

 Tower will be applied to better ways of detecting and neutralizing 

 enemy mines, sneak craft, and submarines, and to development 

 of improved connmunications and navigational systems for the 

 Navy. 



The U. S. Coast Guard is replacing certain of its light ships 

 with fixed structures, which are intended for additional use as 

 platfornns fronn which to study the ocean by the Beach Erosion 

 Board and the Hydrographic Office. The first of these fixed plat- 

 forms will be located in Buzzards Bay, 3 miles southwest of 

 Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts, in 70 feet of water. Sinnilar structures 

 will be built at the rate of two per year for the next 9 years, and are 



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