Chapter 19 

 SITE SELECTION 



D. C. Pauli and G. P. Clapper 



Office of Naval Research 



Washington, D.C. 



and 



T. N. Blockwick 

 Boston Naval Shipyard 

 Boston, Massachusetts 



INTRODUCTION 



The purpose of the Man-in-the-Sea program is not only to place man at a depth equal to 

 any depth encountered on the continental shelf, but also to give him the ability to perform use- 

 ful work at these depths regardless of the severity of the environment. 



Sealab I proved that man could survive under 200 ft of water. It remained for Sealab II to 

 indicate what useful work could be performed at this depth in an environment typical of the 

 continental shelf. 



Therefore, one of the initial concepts of Sealab II was that the operation would be con- 

 ducted at a depth of approximately 200 ft with bottom conditions of some severity, i.e., temper- 

 ature 45" to 55° F and visibility 50 ft or less. 



With these guidelines in mind, site selection began. 



SELECTION OF GENERAL AREA 



The off-shore site at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography near La Jolla, California 

 (Fig. 70) was chosen for several reasons. 



1. The site provided conditions of lower water temperature (48° to 52° F) and lessened 

 visibility (0 to 50 ft), as more typical of the conditions under which routine fleet operations 

 would be conducted. 



2. The proximity of the excellent research facilities of the Scripps Institution of Oceanog- 

 raphy and the Naval activities of the Southern California area enhanced the opportunities of ob- 

 taining the maximum results from the experiment. 



3. The proximity of Scripps Submarine Canyon gave an ideal area for excursion diving to 

 deeper depths, while precluding the necessity of swimming long horizontal distances. At sev- 

 eral points the depth increases from 190 to 300 ft in a horizontal distance of only 100 ft. 



4. The ocean floor from the beach at Scripps Institution of Oceanography out to Scripps 

 Submarine Canyon was as well charted as any comparable section of ocean floor in the world 

 (Fig. 71). The ecology of the area was also very well known as a result of numerous investi- 

 gations by Scripps scientists. This knowledge would give the Physical Oceanographers and 

 Marine Biologists in the Sealab teams an excellent basis for further investigations during the 

 experiment (Chapters 39,40,41). 



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