PRINUL, Puerto Rico.—In November 1972, the 
Puerto Rican International Underwater Laboratory 
(PRINUL) project, sponsored by the Puerto Rican 
government, started operations off the southwest 
coast of Puerto Rico near Mayaguez. The MUS&T 
Office has sponsored scientific divers to conduct nine 
diver-missions pertaining to reef ecology studies, five 
through December 1972. 
International scientific cooperation—During FY 
1973, preparations are being made for participation 
in the U.S.-French investigations of the Mid-Atlantic 
Ridge. These preparations are being made through 
a joint effort with the National Science Foundation 
and the Office of Naval Research. It is also expected 
that a joint U.S.-Canadian program will be conducted 
in the Great Lakes to further study physical and bio- 
logical processes around the time of ice breakup and 
to gain further information on cold water diving. 
Biomedical program.—In addition to the marine 
science programs, a program was initiated during FY 
1972 and will continue during FY 1973 to develop 
vertical excursion limits for divers saturated on 
nitrogen-oxygen breathing mixtures. Such informa- 
tion is necessary, both from a medical safety stand- 
point and in order to properly locate future ocean 
floor laboratories so as to permit optimum vertical 
excursion ranges in steep topographic areas. These 
excursion ranges are being developed under contract 
with Union Carbide Corporation using their com- 
puter program. Portions of the resulting tables will 
be validated in the research hyperbaric chamber 
facility with Navy cooperation. During FY 1973, 
equipment development is being initiated both inde- 
pendently and in cooperation with the Navy for 
medical support of divers. Significant cooperative 
agreements have been reached with the Navy in the 
biomedical and other fields. MUS&T participated 
with the Office of Naval Research in an Arctic ice 
diving experiment at Resolute Bay, Canada, during 
December 1972. 
NOAA diving manual.—A civilian diving manual 
for NOAA employees is under development and will 
address problems of scientific diving as well as work- 
ing diving. This document will complement Navy 
manuals and will integrate information from many 
sources, i.e., universities and other organizations con- 
cerned with diving. Close liaison is being maintained 
with the Navy, the National Research Council on 
49 
Underwater Medicine, commercial diving organiza- 
tions, and those agencies involved in using or devel- 
oping national diving standards. In conjunction with 
this and the U.S. Navy biomedical program, MUS&T 
is attempting to develop quantitative data on com- 
mercial, recreational, scientific, and nonmilitary gov- 
ernmental diving through an effort sponsored by the 
National Bureau of Standards. To improve overall 
safety, an analysis of scuba accidents is being spon- 
sored by the Navy, Department of Health, Educa- 
tion, and Welfare, and the Coast Guard at the 
University of Rhode Island. 
Undersea laboratory systems.—The habitats used 
in many of the well-known projects of the past were 
designed primarily to provide a sea floor shelter to 
sleep and eat and to demonstrate a technological ca- 
pability. To determine the impact of manned under- 
sea systems in the varied fields these systems can 
support, it is necessary to move into systems designed 
for operational capabilities. This differentiates labora- 
tories from habitats. During FY 1972, a grant was 
awarded to the University of New Hampshire to de- 
termine the impact of the requirements of the scien- 
tific community on the designs of future undersea 
laboratory systems. (See pp. 00-00.) 
Manned undersea activity goals——Under the 
MUS&T sponsorship, the National Academies of 
Sciences and Engineering conducted a workshop to 
study the national goals and priorities in undersea 
science and technology requiring the presence of 
man. The culmination will be the report from a 
5-day workshop during October 1972 to be distrib- 
uted in mid-1973. (See pp. 00-00.) 
Future programs.—With the current availability 
of undersea platforms, manned undersea efforts will 
tend to concentrate on critical technological and 
equipment gaps in civil undersea applications. The 
strengths and weaknesses of existing systems will be 
identified based on mission-oriented applications so 
that requirements for future systems can be formu- 
lated. Similar to the FY 1972-73 projects, MUS&T 
will continue to facilitate the coordination of under- 
sea science projects and the utilization of available 
platforms in support of NOAA’s mission and the re- 
lated missions of other Federal agencies. Figure 6 is 
a bar chart showing that NOAA participants repre- 
sented less than 20% in the projects conducted 
thus far. 
