lpetrich
Contributor
There is an interesting way to see the oceans that has emerged: submarine tourism.
I don't mean visiting old submarines. I have visited two US WWII ones, one in Philadelphia and one in San Francisco. They were cramped, and they remind me of the joke that to a sardine, a submarine is a can of people.
I mean submarines for tourist expeditions. They seem like a good way of seeing what's in the oceans, since one can't see much from the surface. Dolphins and whales are a sight to see from the surface, because they have to come up to the surface to breathe. But one can't see coral reefs from the surface, except if they extend dangerously close to the surface.
Note on terminology: a submersible is a small submarine, especially one that is supported by another vessel instead of being autonomous.
Tourist submarines typically have big portholes, so their passengers can have a good view. Landforms, sea life, shipwrecks, ...
I've found tourist-submarine operations in several places: Catalina Island (CA,US), Hawaii, the Caribbean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands, the Red Sea, Mauritius, Maldives, Bali, Australia, Guam, ...
I found that some of these tours' "submarines" are semi-submarines, meaning that they only partially submerge.
I don't mean visiting old submarines. I have visited two US WWII ones, one in Philadelphia and one in San Francisco. They were cramped, and they remind me of the joke that to a sardine, a submarine is a can of people.
I mean submarines for tourist expeditions. They seem like a good way of seeing what's in the oceans, since one can't see much from the surface. Dolphins and whales are a sight to see from the surface, because they have to come up to the surface to breathe. But one can't see coral reefs from the surface, except if they extend dangerously close to the surface.
Note on terminology: a submersible is a small submarine, especially one that is supported by another vessel instead of being autonomous.
Tourist submarines typically have big portholes, so their passengers can have a good view. Landforms, sea life, shipwrecks, ...
I've found tourist-submarine operations in several places: Catalina Island (CA,US), Hawaii, the Caribbean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands, the Red Sea, Mauritius, Maldives, Bali, Australia, Guam, ...
I found that some of these tours' "submarines" are semi-submarines, meaning that they only partially submerge.