ROV helps solve lake Seneca mystery
Aquatic
Center of Rochester is a full service dive shop in Henrietta,
NY. In addition to
carrying a complete line of scuba equipment, and offering full
range of scuba training courses, company owner Joe Plano also
provides ROV inspection services.
Several years ago Joe purchased his Fisher SeaOtter ROV
to perform an inspection on one of New York’s barge canal
system locks. The job involved penetrating a tunnel at the
bottom of the 40 foot deep lock to locate and examining a 1/2
ton steel gate that had jammed in the open position. The
SeaOtter was able to complete the inspection, in near zero
visibility, and a videotape was supplied to state canal
engineers. Since that first job Joe has become quite proficient
at handling the SeaOtter and has gained a reputation as a
skilled ROV operator.
Recently Joe was hired by a Massachusetts firm to help
with the recovery of some acoustic
equipment from Lake Seneca, the site of the US Navy’s
sonar test platform. The
Seneca Lake Sonar Test Facility is a field station of the Naval
Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and is world renown as a sonar test
site. The 650 foot
deep fresh water lake provides a controlled environment for
acoustic testing in weather conditions that are relatively calm
in comparison to the ocean or Great Lakes. The facility offers
heavy load-handling capability, an abundance of power, and is
located only an hour from Syracuse or Rochester airports.
An automobile size device had been lowered from the
platform and anchored to the bottom for testing. When the tests were completed, an explosive charge was
supposed to sever the cable between the device and the anchor,
allowing it to be raised to the surface.
However, after detonating the charge, the device
wouldn’t budge, even under 4,000 lbs of pull from the on-board
crane. Why the device wouldn’t rise to the surface was a
mystery that had the engineers scratching their heads.
A decision was made to call in Joe with his SeaOtter to
see what was going on.
Maneuvering the ROV through the tangle of cables to
the bottom 500 feet below was no easy task, but Joe finally
managed to locate the acoustic device.
He positioned the ROV to view the cable connecting the
device to the anchor. Using
his “underwater eyeball” he could clearly see the problem.
The explosive charge had severed the cable, but as the cable
passed through the eye of the anchor, it became twisted and hung
up. Once engineers were able to see the problem, a solution was
quickly implemented and the device was raised to the surface.
Use of the ROV had eliminated the need for a very
expensive deep-water commercial dive operation saving the
company thousands of dollars.
Joe and his SeaOtter were the heroes of the day.
