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3. 3 Scientific/Research Tasks 



The application of ROVs by the scientific/research community has been minimal. 

 In the U.S. only two applications of ROVs to scientific tasks have been reported. 

 The first application was by the Environmental Protection Agency during 

 August 1974 involving inspection of a radioactive waste disposal site off 

 the California coast. The second was the use of a SNOOPY vehicle by NOAA's 

 Manned Undersea Science and Technology Office in conjunction with a study of 

 herring spawning studies off the northeast coast in November 1975. The Harbor 

 Branch Foundation, Ft. Pierce, Florida; have been developing a scientific/ 

 research ROV capability with their CORD vehicle, but at this time the CORD 

 has not yet conducted studies in this area. 



Only three countries, England, Finland, and Canada, are known to be operating 

 ROVs as scientific/research vehicles. The Institute of Geological Sciences 

 at Edinburgh employs the CONSUB 1 system; the Geological Survey of Finland 

 (Geologinen Tutkimuslaitos) at Otaniemi has, since 1969, used their PHOCAS 

 vehicle, and the National Water Research Institute at Burlington, Ontario 

 operates a TROV vehicle for scientific purposes. 



The work which has been conducted to date can be categorized as Inspection 

 and Survey. In many instances reports of ROV activity deal mainly with the 

 manner in which the vehicle performed operationally, and does not provide 

 details of the work conducted. For this reason many of the following work 

 examples are brief. 



3.3.1 Inspection 



In 1946 an area 41 to 70km (22 to 38 miles) offshore began receiving containerized 

 radioactive wastes. Until 1959, when land burial of wastes were initiated, 

 47,750 containers were dumped in this area in water depth from 91m (300 ft) 

 to 1,828m (6,000 ft) deep. In 1974 the Office of Radiation Programs, 

 Environmental Protection Agency, conducted a study using the U.S. Navy's CURV III 

 to: 1) determine the feasibility of surveying a waste dumpsite with an 

 ROV, 2) obtain photographs of the containers (i.e., 55 gal. drums) to determine 

 the degree of corrosion and fouling, and the relative abundance of organisms, 

 and 3) obtain sediment samples adjacent to both intact and breached containers 

 known to contain radioactive wastes. (Some of the containers held chemical 

 miinitions) . The site selected was at the 914 (3,000 ft) depth contour. Over 

 a five day at-sea period CURV III completed four successful dives for a total 

 of 31 hours 55 minutes bottom time. Hundreds of color photographs of selected 

 targets were taken along with sediment cores and grab samples at various 

 sites. Although several operational areas were in need of improvements, the 

 vehicle conclusively demonstrated its ability to perform such surveys at great 

 depths (EPA, 1975) . 



Other work in this category includes archeological investigations by the 

 Rebikoff Underwater Institute. Such investigations have been conducted in 

 the Mediterranean and off the coast of Florida and the Bahamas. Specific 

 details are not available, but the main ROV capabilities utilized were the 

 TV camera and photographic cameras. These investigations were conducted by 

 the ROVs SEA SURVEYOR and SEA INSPECTOR. 



