The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas could become the future home of one of the world's leading manned submersible operations, with the country's education and tourism sectors acting as a launching point for several key initiatives.

Stockton Rush, chief executive officer and co-founder of OceanGate Incorporation, who spoke with The Tribune moments after his company tested its newest submersible off Andros, said a long-term facility in The Bahamas "makes sense".

In June 2013, the OceanGate team committed its flagship submersible Antipodes to a series of dives to showcase the company's ability to work quickly and efficiently through successive cycles of mobilisation and deployment.

According to the company, in less than 30 days, OceanGate completed expeditions in three separate bodies of water facing the United States.

The series of dives were performed by a single team with one submersible vehicle diving first in the Pacific, then the Gulf of Mexico and finishing in the Atlantic.

OceanGate said each site had very specific dive goals that included: equipment testing, oil platform surveys and invasive species and habit monitoring.

As a result, the company said successes experienced prepared it for the next step in its operation.

OceanGate, which is based in Washington, over the course of the last eight years has reformatted its operation from pod development strictly for research purposes, to pods designed to operate on all platforms from recreational to educational dives.

Mr Rush, who has made it his life goal to find and recover the Titanic, said the pristine waters of The Bahamas and its intense focus on offering the best tourism product possible has placed the country and his company on an "unavoidable collision course".

He said: "Much of what we do was always in line of discovery, deep water discovery. When one thinks water, deep pristine and beautiful waters, you think the islands of The Bahamas.

"The way we are designing our vessels now, is to push the limits on what is possible, and considering our successes here in The Bahamas, it hard not to consider The Bahamas as a place to do just that.

"We see the world of opportunities before us," Mr Rush continued. "That's why we made a point to speak with the prime minister when we came down.

"We've seen opportunity in The Bahamas before but we had to make sure our operations were in order. That, and we had some concerns with the way foreign direct investments would be perceived. So we took our time, we did our research and now, we are ready to push forward."

OceanGate has not finalised any plans for The Bahamas and continues to further its discussion with the government.

The Office of the Prime Minister on Monday confirmed last week's meeting, but stopped short of identifying what was discussed.

OceanGate is expected back in the country in the coming months to test several more of its pods in waters off Abaco.