DEEHP-SHEA MOORINGS 
Design and Use with Unmanned Instrument Stations 
BY 
JOHN D. ISAACS, JAMES L. FAUGHN, GEORGE B. SCHICK, 
AND MARSTON C. SARGENT 
ABSTRACT 
This report describes methods that have been devised for mooring surface-instrument floats at 
fixed positions in the deep sea. The fundamental principles, the environmental factors, the design 
of equipment, and the over-all systems, techniques, and procedures at sea are discussed. Although 
most of the experience described has been with taut-wire moorings, the principles and the methods 
are of general application. Sources of information on environmental conditions in the ocean are 
listed, and examples of calculations are given. 
INTRODUCTION 
THE PRINCIPLES and the techniques discussed in this report relate to mooring light 
devices in the deep ocean at depths from 100 to 3,000 fathoms. 
This report is a record of experience for the information of those who plan to 
design and install such deep-sea moorings. It is based on approximately eight years 
of work by members of the staff of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who 
have, at times, maintained simultaneously as many as thirty moored stations dis- 
tributed over thousands of square miles. 
The large expanse of oceans is deep, unmarked, and constantly in motion. The 
oceans are a dynamic environment, differing from one moment to another. Because 
of this mobility we must attain a knowledge of the fluctuations before we can 
establish the significance of single sets of observations. It is as essential, for in- 
stance, for the oceanographer to understand movements of the water if he is to 
comprehend the events that take place in the sea, as it is for the meteorologist on 
land to understand the fluctuations of the systems of winds. 
Almost all oceanographic investigations in the deep oceans today are still car- 
ried out aboard surface or subsurface vessels, and all these vessels are more or less 
affected by the dynamic nature of the oceanic environment. Through long experi- 
ence and necessity, investigative and sampling techniques have been designed to 
take advantage of and work with the natural forces, the large areas, the great 
pressures, the distribution of features, and the lack of synopticity in the meas- 
urements. 
The techniques may be broadly grouped under two operational types that ordi- 
narily require increasing control or knowledge of position of the measurement: 
1) Under-way surveys, where ordinary navigation suffices and time series are 
not usually wanted, include plankton net and mid-water trawl hauls for biological 
sampling; bottom-dredge hauls for the sampling of benthic organisms; rock-dredge 
and mud-sampler hauls for geological and radiological sampling; bathymetric 
surveys; current surveys using the GEK (Geomagnetic-electro-kinetograph) tech- 
nique; surface temperature surveys using thermitow, thermograph, or bathy- 
thermograph; and magnetic, gravity, and radiological surveys. 
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