Underwater technology helps solve Lake Seneca mystery

A Massachusetts firm needed help with the recovery of some acoustic equipment from Lake Seneca, the site of the U.S. Navy's sonar test platform.

An automobile size device had been lowered from a platform and anchored to the bottom of the lake for testing. When the tests were completed, an explosive charge was expected 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 pounds of pull from an on-board crane so the decision was made to call in Joe Plano.

Plano owns and operates the Aquatic Center of Rochester, a full service dive shop in Henrietta, N.Y. Plano owns a Fisher SeaOtter ROV, which is used to perform underwater investigations.

Plano maneuvered the ROV through the tangle of cables to the bottom, 500 feet below, to view the cable connecting the detonating devise to the automobile.

Using his "underwater eyeball" Plano could clearly see that the explosive charge had severed the cable and that the cable became twisted and hung up on the eye of the anchor.

Engineers implemented a solution to the problem and raised the automobile to the surface. Use of the ROV eliminated the need for an expensive deep water commercial dive operation.

For more information: www.fisherlab.com