08 January 2009

Aquatourism ~ Emergent Oceanic Eco-Industry

At MIT's IAP X-Prize Workshop I was delighted to see for the first time Graham Hawkes speak about his Deep Flight family of submersibles. These currently luxury devices (~US$1 to 3M each) will soon enable aqua-limo services and ultimately be a class of readily accessible toursubs, thus transforming the aquatourism sector. I expect that, in the beginning, they'll be launched from ports or beach resorts or cruise liners or personal yachts. But they do not require exotic (and expensive) specialized and dedicated support vessels. And they're tremendously maneuverable, underwater flyers really. These are big breakthroughs. Graham Hawkes is the creator-engineer, a multi-company entrepreneur, most recently operating both Precision Remotes and Hawkes Ocean Technologies.

No comments: