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Sustainable Seas Submersible Pilot Training

• Preliminary training for the submersible pilots required one week and was conducted at the Monterey Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, California.
• Each day began with a lecture on submersible systems, or operations (See photo).
• Half the day was spent training in the submersible. Before diving the group gave the training sub a systems checkout (See photo).
• When ready the submersible was wheeled out to a crane which hoisted the sub over the building containing the test tank (See photo).
• Each pilot received about an hour of tank practice each day (See photo).
• The pilot has continuous communications with the surface while underwater through the use of Single Sideband Acoustic Telephone. Instructors used this to assign a variety of practice tasks to trainees during their tank dives.
• At the end of the week the pilots were given an ocean checkout dive off the end of the Monterey Coast Guard Pier (See photo).
• A second sub was available as a backup. Once in the water a diver detached the hoist lines, attached a line with a float (used to visually track the subs location during the dive), and the pilot submerged and attempted to follow a predetermined course away from the pier (See photo). The sub was also tracked with an acoustic system in case a trainee really went astray.