OCEAN FLOOR PROGRAM 



John G. VanDerwalker 



Department of the Interior 



Washington, D. C. 



The TEKTITE II program's primary goal was to expose marine scientist- 

 divers to the technique of saturation diving. Accomplishment of this 

 goal would (1) provide a cadre of marine scientist-aquanauts , (2) who 

 would contribute to our general knowledge of the oceans and (3) be 

 qualified to answer the question: Why put men into the sea? 



Prior to the operational phase of TEKTITE II an open invitation was 

 published in journals and distributed to marine-oriented institutions 

 inviting scientists to submit research proposals to be considered for 

 inclusion in the Ocean Floor Program. These proposals were reviewed by a 

 panel of marine scientists from government and private institutions. The 

 panel then recommended which programs should be accepted. The scheduling 

 of these teams was arranged by a member of the Scientific Review Board, 

 the Scientific Coordinator, and the NASA Behavioral Programs Coordinator. 

 Every effort was made to match teams of researchers that would benefit by 

 working together. Final approval for participation was given on-site 

 after each scientist had completed the aquanaut training successfully. 



Those scientists that participated as aquanauts had only a brief stay on 

 the bottom, no more than 20 days. The scientific and support equipment 

 was severely limited. There were no swimmer-delivery vehicles to extend 

 their range, no navigation equipment other than wrist compasses and 

 depth gauges. Underwater communication ranged from the primitive hand 

 signals to the sophistication of pencil and note pad. Those few land 

 instruments waterproofed for in-situ measurements of various environmental 

 parameters rarely, if ever, worked. In spite of these limitations the 

 aquanauts had their most vital scientific need fulfilled: 24 hour a day 

 access to the ecosystem they wished to study and complete freedom to 

 schedule their time to fit their needs. They traveled around the reef with 

 a freedom not experienced by the majority of marine scientists. Utilizing 

 the General Electric Mark X closed-cycle rebreather, these scientists could 

 spend up to four hours in the water at a time and routinely worked 350 

 meters away from the habitat both in daylight and dark. 



Figure 1 is an aerial photograph of Beehive Cove. The large white square in 

 the center is the support barge located above the habitat, which can be 

 seen as two white circles immediately below it. Surrounding the habitat, and 

 extending south of it to Cabritte Horn Point, is a massive solid coral reef 

 rising as much as 4.5 meters above the adjacent sand-algal plains lying to 

 the west and south (Figure 2) . The edge of this reef ranges from 13 meters 

 deep adjacent to the habitat to 16 meters deep south of Cabritte Horn 

 Point. The area immediately northeast of the habitat is a large gently 

 sloping sand plain that is covered with patch reefs, many of them rising 

 three or more meters above the sea floor. The area closer inshore and ex- 

 tending from the dive platform on around Cabritte Horn Point is character- 

 ized by small clumps of coral anchored oTi bedrock. These reefs provide 



VI -1 



