state-of-the-art insight into "the last frontier on earth'' in a cross between a science museum and Disneyland. Robin Zuill examines the philosophy and the controversy behind the $10 million project.

"It's a different world down there. It's dark ... darker than dark. You're a million miles from anything, in another element. When the capsule reaches the bottom, 3,000 feet below the surface, everything is shut down, the lights, the strange sounds inside the capsule ... everything. It's quiet. You know the glass is there, but you can't see anything - it's like you're looking into infinity. You watch the sonar inside the capsule until something approaches.

The exterior lights are switched on and you see these creatures, the big sharks, giant crabs, shrimps and eels.'' After spending much of his life on the sea as one of the world's foremost shipwreck divers, Teddy Tucker made his first trip to the deep ocean bottom in a tiny submersible six years ago. And now as a trustee of the planned $10 million Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, he wants to share his experience. "I have always been interested in the water and anything to do with it,'' says Tucker, whose wife Edna and daughter Wendy are also trustees of the Institute. "After the war, when I came back to Bermuda from the Navy in 1947, I was doing some work at the end of the Number Seven shed in Hamilton. I had been diving before this, but it was then that it impressed me that there was a lot more in the ocean water column and on the floor of the ocean than people thought. It was the great myth then, that when you went past the 100 fathom mark, there was nothing there. But there are more living creatures in a cubic mile in the deep water that there are near the surface.'' Tucker's fascination with the ocean and what lay below led him to another preoccupation - fishing the deep. In the early 1980s, after years of dropping baited lines to depths up to 1,800 feet and bringing up monster-like animals rarely seen before, Tucker teamed up with scientists from around the world to help them explore the deep waters off Bermuda. In fact, it was Tucker's profound, often uncanny, knowledge of the local waters that brought early success to much of their work. It was here in Bermuda, with its close proximity to the very deep ocean, that the first major studies of the water column were done, creating an awareness of the potential for deep water exploration and discovery. It is that work, as well as Tucker's association with some of the world's top marine scientists that has laid the foundation for the development of an underwater exploration institute in Bermuda. Such an institute, where the treasures and mysteries of the deep could be displayed for the public, has long been a dream that Tucker and his colleagues in the diving community have shared. In 1990, that dream finally approached reality.

One of America's top businessmen, Edward C. (Ned) Johnson III, felt Bermuda, especially Hamilton, needed a major attraction for visitors. Johnson, whose father founded Fidelity, one of the world's largest mutual fund companies, is a regular visitor to Bermuda and owns a home here. During one of his visits, he discussed the possibility of an underwater institute with the president of Bermuda-based Fidelity International, Dr. David Saul. Saul, who is also Bermuda's Finance Minister, initiated meetings withmembers of the diving and business communities and a feasibility study was carried out to determine whether or not an underwater exploration institute would work. Saul says the study concluded that an institute could be successful and could cover its own operating costs if it was centrally located, included a theatre, a restaurant, a shop and a public exhibition area with computer-simulated exhibits.

Johnson, who sponsors more than two dozen museums, mostly in New England, through his Boston-based charity foundations, the Fidelity Foundation and the Johnson Foundation, agreed to meet half of the $10 million cost of building an underwater institute if the local community could match it by April, 1994.

That was in mid-1991.

Today, the Institute is halfway towards its goal. It has a 19-member local board of trustees, which includes top Bermuda sailor Kirk Cooper, longtime diver Harry Cox, keen fisherman and former Attorney General Saul Froomkin, top businessman and former Premier Sir David Gibbons, historian Brendan Hollis, and diver Allan (Smokey) Wingood, who led the excavation of the Sea Venture in 1978. It also has a powerful international advisory board that includes some of the world's top scientists. A site has been selected, local architects Barker & Linberg have been hired to help design the Institute, development plans are now being finalised, display collections have been offered, and ideas for interactive exhibits are being put into action.

Trustees, after two years of groundwork, say the Institute's mission is: To advance the knowledge and understanding of the ocean, from the surface to the deep ocean floor, especially as it relates to underwater research; * To encourage the protection and preservation of the marine environment and all that is beneath the ocean; To preserve and display for the public, artifacts, documents, and other goods and materials relating to the ocean and the underwater marine environment; To promote, principally through exhibitions, and otherwise encourage historical and scientific research related to the ocean, particularly as it relates to the ocean around Bermuda; To educate the public of all ages, using the latest sophisticated multi-media techniques, concerning the wonders of the ocean; To foster close cooperation among similar institutions, here and overseas, in order to advance the understanding, appreciation and knowledge of all that exists beneath the ocean.

Already the Institute, through its international advisors, has close ties with the National Geographic Society, the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Russian Institute of Oceanology in Moscow.

The Institute, which was created by a private act of Parliament in April, 1992, and is registered as a charity, is proposed for a two-acre lot along East Broadway, just west of Pembroke Hall. The main building will comprise between 22,000 and 25,000 square feet of space which will include exhibit areas, plus a 150-200 seat auditorium for films, lectures and discussions.

Plans also include a gift shop, restaurant, dock for visitors arriving by boat, plus parking for approximately 70 cars and 70 motor bikes. Plans for an underground parking facility were scrapped earlier this year when they became too complicated and too expensive at a cost of $2.3 million.

Themes of the Institute's educational programmes and exhibits will cover a widerange of topics: the latest discoveries of scientists and explorers; the history of underwater exploration; natural history and ecology of the ocean; the technology used in deep-water exploration; and shipwrecks and the cultural history of Bermuda.

It will focus on the relationship between Bermuda and the ocean, highlighting the more than 250 wrecks around Bermuda, from the Sea Venture, to present day losses, and it will showcase the divers who explore the wrecks and recover their treasures. It will also highlight the discoveries made around Bermuda, the scientists that have studied here and the state-of-the-art technology they use to watch deep sea animals in their natural habitat.

"The Island's lore of undersea discovery, her maritime history and the ever-present danger of the sea are part of Bermuda's mystique,'' a pamphlet on the Institute says.

On display inside the main building will be three permanent collections - Teddy Tucker's artifacts recovered from shipwrecks around Bermuda, Jack Lightbourn's shells collected from Bermuda and around the world, and Chris Addams' convict carvings recovered from the muddy waters around Dockyard, which was built by prisoners brought to Bermuda from England in the nineteenth century. Both Lightbourn, who is a former trustee of the Bermuda Maritime Museum, and Addams are trustees of the Institute. The Bermuda Biological Station for Research and the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo will have display space to show their latest projects. The heads of both institutions, Tony Knap of the Biological Station, and Richard Winchell of the Aquarium, are also trustees of the Institute.

Other proposed attractions include interactive video exhibits that will give visitors the opportunity to share the experiences of underwater explorers.

Whether it's a simulated dive on one of Bermuda's reefs with a full motion video of the animal life there, or a pretend voyage to the deep ocean in a submersible, visitors will be able to take part in the exploration, to go where the explorers went, and to feel the way they did. Also in the plans is video-disc access to information about some of the permanent collections, for example shells. And trustees say one of the most stunning exhibits, to attract visitors as they enter the Institute, will be a three-storey high model of the water column with colour photographs and video film footage showing underwater animals in their natural habitat, from the more familiar-looking fish and animal life right down to the monsters who inhabit the very deep. Visitors will be able to start at the ocean's surface and walk through the depths seeing the different animal life at each level. Films, featuring close-up shots of giant six-gill sharks in the deep waters, Japan, the Titanic in 3-D, and hydrothermal vents in the north Atlantic, will also be shown regularly in the auditorium. The trustees are hoping that the Institute's international advisors will each visit at least twice a year for lectures or presentations.

One of the Institute's international advisors, Dr. Clyde Roper of the Smithsonian Institution, has already given his first presentation on the proposed site of the Institute. At its first Annual General Meeting, marked by an evening celebration with Board members, advisors, and donors, Roper talked about man's relationship with the giant squid. Roper, who is curator of the department of invertebrate zoology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, says much of the giant squid's mythical status results from the fact that it is rarely seen.

"What we see happening is that when people leave the Institute, they will say, `Wow! How exciting!' And then later they will stop and realise what an education they've just had,'' says Saul. "They willnot only have fun, they will learn in the most subtle way.

"The Underwater Institute will not be a museum in the sense that you look at things through glass showcases. Virtually all of it will be interactive.

Someone once said to us that the Institute would be something like Disneyland.

At first we said, `No' - we took that as a criticism. But then the more we thought about it, the more we liked it. So yes, in a way it will be Disney-like.'' Businessman David Lines, chairman of the Board of Trustees, adds: "Bermuda already has a number of institutions that cover Bermuda's dependence on the sea. But very little is done in the world on the deep ocean. Bermuda has been at the forefront of so much of the research on the deep. We see things in our everyday life here in Bermuda that scientists have been waiting all their lives to see. It's very exciting stuff.

"There is an enormous amount of research, documentary and film which has had very little opportunity of being shown to the public. The Institute will make that available. Our ardent hope is that a fair number of learned people - scientists and people who work or have interest in the field - will come to the Institute for discussion.'' The Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, although still in the planning stages, is almost a reality. Depending on Planning approval, building is expected to start early next year and the Institute is expected to open sometime in the first half of 1995. Since their beginning in 1990, the plans have moved ahead almost without interruption, but the Institute and the people behind it have also had their share of controversy. Other organisations became suspicious of how quickly the plans for the Institute were moving ahead and criticised the trustees for the way they were dealing with the National Trust and the Bermuda Maritime Museum. A major sticking point remains over the Institute's collections policy - trustees of the Institute say they will follow international regulations on collections, but the Maritime Museum and the National Trust want to know exactly which regulations they will follow and want confirmation in writing before they will support the Institute.

The first hit came from the Maritime Museum's director Dr. Edward Harris, who has had a longtime feud with the local diving community, and in particular Teddy Tucker. Harris believes the relationship between the two men is characterised in the 1991 novel Beast, whose author, Peter Benchley, is a good friend of Tucker and an international advisor to the Institute. Almost before the book was available in Bermuda, Harris said he believed the character Liam St. John, who was loathed by the book's hero Whip Darling, was based partly on himself. Benchley had already volunteered at that point that Darling's character was modelled loosely around that of Tucker.

For years, Harris has referred to shipwreck divers as "pillagers'' of Bermuda's underwater heritage. Then, when news of the Institute became public, he said it was a waste of money, that there are few areas of ocean exploration not already covered by local museums, and that the money it would cost to build a new institute could be better spent on improving existing museums which already highlight the sea around Bermuda. And he suggested that it was a conflict of interest for David Saul to be involved in the Institute while serving as Bermuda's Finance Minister. Saul chose not to respond.

Harris' complaint with the diving community is over how wrecks around Bermuda should be explored and protected. In a recent letter to the Editor of The Royal Gazette, he said: "The fact is that there is virtually no protection in local law for the archaeological sites of Bermuda, especially our underwater sites, which have beenplundered almost at will since the Second World War.'' He sees shipwrecks as underwater museums and argues that artifacts should not be removed from shipwrecks before the site has been properly recorded and that, when they are taken from the ocean, they must be treated and preserved to protect them from damage from salt water and chlorine. His concern was that the Institute would not follow widely-accepted international excavation and conservation standards. He even lobbied local Members of Parliament as well as some of America's top museums, including the Philadelphia Maritime Museum whose president John Carter now sits on the Institute's international advisory board.

Carter, who responded in a letter to the Editor of the Mid-Ocean News in April, 1992, said it would be unlikely the Institute would abide by anything less than the highest standards. He justified that by pointing to some of the people involved: Allan (Smokey) Wingood, who he said played a part in developing new standards for International Congress of Maritime Museums member institutions that will protect underwater cultural resources from salvage; and Edward Johnson, who he referred to as "the majority shareholder of (Fidelity)'' and said he was a "superb connoisseur and collector who holds to the very high standards and ethics in both his business dealings and his collecting of his historical material''. He also said that when Teddy Tucker first began salvaging material, there was no professional organisation or museum that was proposing standards for underwater archaeology or the collection of shipwreck artifacts.

"In many instances, we are indeed fortunate that individual sport divers have preserved this material. Now that we have drafted standards for the preservation of these cultural resources, I am positive that concerned citizens, like those forming the new Institute, will follow established guidelines or else be ostracized by the maritime community. Their work to establish the Institute shows concern for the plight of these important resources.'' He added: "I can assure you that there is no way the company (Fidelity) would be supporting this venture without assurances that it is strictly above board.

...You cannot begin to imagine the number of American cities and states that wish they were in your shoes. ...The Institute represents a momentous addition, not only to the Island, but to the potential understanding of the problems associated with underwater archaeology.'' The Maritime Museum's concern continues to be that the Institute has not yet said what collections standards it will follow. The Museum's Board of Trustees chairman Paul Leseur says he believes the Institute could be good for Bermuda and that it could boost cultural tourism here. He says the two institutions could complement each other, providing there is no duplication of exhibits between the Institute and the Museum. Although it is likely that the two institutions will compete directly for funds, Leseur says he believes the public will support both.

The Museum has so far not given its support to the Institute. Leseur says that depends on whether or not the Institute will follow internationally-accepted standards of collection and conservation.

The Museum's policy states that any artifacts recovered after 1980 from sites that were not excavated according to the archaeological standards it follows cannot be accepted for exhibition. It will accept artifacts recovered prior to 1980 regardless of how the site was excavated, although Leseur says a major consideration now is the cost of conserving those artifacts. The Museum currently has on display some of the convictcarvings Chris Addams found in the late 1970s, but Leseur says that additional pieces were later turned down for exhibit because the recovery did not meet the Museum's collections requirements. Addams says, however, that he never offered any additional pieces to the Museum for exhibition.

"There have been substantial changes in underwater archaeology in the past 30 years,'' Leseur says. "The Museum follows the standards set by the Council of American Maritime Museums and the International Congress of Maritime Museums.

Our concern is that the proper procedures for conservation and preservation wouldn't be followed. We wish to take the high road on this.

"The collections policy that we have in place is the way we have to go if we are going to preserve things for future generations. There are people who say the Museum is too academic. That is unfortunate. If you look at the amount the Museum publishes ... we really picked up where the old Historical Quarterly left off. I think the trustees of the Museum are there to give some balance between academia and Disney. You have to give Dr. Harris credit. He does write things down. It's very important. We should be looking forward to what is good for Bermuda when it comes to preserving and interpreting history.'' The National Trust, too, has concerns that the Institute has not outlined its policy on collections. It is also concerned with the actual size and scale of development on the East Broadway site, which is owned by a company called Fidnat.

Fidnat, a partnership between Johnson's Boston-based Fidelity Real Estate Corporation (a sister company to Bermuda's Fidelity International) and the National Trust Endowment Company Ltd., was set up in 1984 to buy the property on which the old Butterfield warehouse was located. The reason for that, the Trust's lawyer Alan Dunch says, was its location directly next to the Pembroke Hall property which the Trust already owned. The Trust could buy the property, improve it, thereby enhancing Pembroke Hall. But the Trust didn't have the money to pay for it. Fidelity then said it would pay the $1.3 million price and through a joint development project to build townhouses for the Bermudian middle-class paid for by Fidelity, the Trust could repay Fidelity over a period of 10 years. Fidelity would get their money back, and after 10 years the property and the leases to the townhouses would be turned over to the Trust. The National Trust Endowment Company Ltd., which is a separate entity to the Trust, was set up to act as the partner in the development project and to protect the National Trust's assets in entering the deal.

When demand for housing began to decline two years later and the project became uneconomical, it was put on hold. It was about 18 months ago, Dunch says, that the Trust Endowment Company was approached by its partner in Fidnat and asked to consider leasing the property to the planned Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.

The Trust has three concerns over the proposed development: that land will have to be reclaimed and the development will then encroach on the foreshore; that, on the other side of the property, the main building will encroach on the old East Broadway roadway, which the Government said nearly two years ago it would turn over to the Trust; and that there will not be enough public access for pedestrians around the property.

There are also some members of the Trust who object to any development on the site of the planned Institute. They feel it should be left alone and used as park land. But the land has always been zoned for development - zoning was recently changed to institutional from commercial - and the National Trust Endowment Company entered the deal with Fidelity in 1984 with the intention of developing the land. When the proposal to build townhouses was dropped, Fidelity paid to have the two-acre lot landscaped to improve its look until another proposal for development was agreed on.

If the Trust's concerns are addressed and a lease is agreed to by Fidnat and the Institute, it will last approximately 60 years, after which the property and whatever is on it will be owned outright by the Trust. So far, though, the Trust has not given its approval to the plan and it has made it clear that if its development concerns are not met and there is no policy on collections there will be no deal.

Trustees of the Institute seem somewhat reluctant to talk about the problems it has had along the way other that to say the Institute will greatly benefit Bermuda and Bermudians.

"It's an opportunity for everybody to share,'' says Lines, who adds that the Institute, with its prime location next door to Hamilton, could serve as an introduction to Bermuda's other similar institutions - the Maritime Museum, the Aquarium and the Biological Station.

The Institute is now on good working terms with both the Museum and the National Trust, he says.

"There has been discussion about what our collections policy will be,'' Lines says. "We will be following international recommendations on collections. We will follow international standards as they develop. It is not an important issue to us because collections is not a big part of what we will be doing.'' A pamphlet put out by the Institute addresses the issue to some degree: "Objects recovered from shipwrecks, in particular, require extensive stabilisation and preservation before they may be safely displayed or stored.

The cost of the specialised treatment and storage required makes judicious acquisition a necessity, and the large size of some of these artifacts increases the importance of creating a workable philosophy of acquisition.

"The Underwater Exploration Institute, with its distinguished international Board of Advisors, is developing a philosophy of collecting and an acquisition policy that will ensure an excellent and responsibly managed collection. It will be responsive to relevant professional standards of collection and stabilisation of artifacts and will fully comply with Bermuda's laws regarding the removal of artifact materials from beneath the sea.'' The importance of an internationally accepted collections policy was made clear by Burt Logan, president of the Council of American Maritime Museums (CAMM), the body which sets standards for museums in North America. Logan, who is also the director of the Manitowoc Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, says its importance is determined by what the organisation, in this case the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, is trying to achieve.

"For a museum to say that they are a professionally operated institution that abides by and adheres to professional standards, means they're serious enough in their mission to have a collections policy and to abide by it. Collections policies have evolved over the last 15 to 20 years. They have really become something that museums have recognised the need for.'' Logan lists five points that underline the importance of a collections policy.

They are: The question of ownership: Logan says ownerships of a collection should be held in trust by the museum for the good of the general public and that museum officials are responsible for how the items are curated.

The reason for retrieval: Logan says there must be a "compelling reason'' to retrieve items from the water - for research purposes, to be placed on exhibit as part of a broader context, or if the site is threatened, for example by development or climactic conditions. He says the longer a site can be preserved, the more than can be gathered from it. "Retrieval should be a means to an end, rather than simply an end,'' he says.

The care of collections: When items have been underwater for hundreds of years, they have reached a certain equilibrium in their environment, Logan says. But when they are removed from the water, the equilibrium is broken, and the items must be treated "by professionally approved and recognised methods of halting deterioration''.

Recovery and the question of research: Logan says the ultimate reason for an archaeological expedition should be for research purposes - to gather information. "If research is not the driving force in a recovery, then a time capsule is being destroyed and information is being lost.'' The use of the collection: Logan says items recovered should be used in an educational manner to help explain an event, and not displayed purely for sensational reasons.

Peter Neill, CAMM's immediate past president and in-coming vice-president of the International Congress of Maritime Museums, says the issue is basically over how items are recovered and the intent of the recovery. Neill, who has been the president of the South Street Seaport Museum in New York for the past eight years, says there is "tremendous opportunity'' for Bermuda to become the place where archaeological standards could be set.

"What we're talking about is not unreasonable,'' Neill says. "What we're saying is that the concerns for the environment should be extended to submerged cultural resources. They should be protected the same way that coral reefs, for example, are protected. Other nations are establishing very, very stringent policies in this area. In Australia, for example, if you're caught removing an artifact from the water, you have to pay a $5,000 fine and your boat and diving gear are confiscated on the spot.

"We're trying to get across that we're not fooling around here.'' Neill says he is familiar with the plans for the Institute and the feud between some of its backers and the Maritime Museum. He adds that Edward Johnson has been largely responsible for mergers between museums in the US. The most recent merger was between the Peabody Museum (where artifacts recovered by Teddy Tucker are exhibited) and the Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts, which together are called the Peabody Essex Museum. The mergers, according to Neill, increase efficiency between similar institutions.

"I think the question should be why Bermuda needs two institutions, the Underwater Exploration Institute and the Maritime Museum. It doesn't seem particularly efficient to have both. Johnson has become a key person in urging mergers between museums, which I think is an excellent idea. I just wonder why that practice isn't being followed in Bermuda.'' Just one year after fund raising began, the Institute has already raised more than $2.25 million toward its $5 million goal. By the beginning of next month, it expects to be at the $3.5 million mark. Fund raising is being coordinated locally by Tucker's daughter,Wendy, who says the financial support from local and foreign individuals and companies has been "exceptional''. A pilot display, showing pieces that will be on permanent display in the Institute, has been set up in the only existing building on the site to give potential donors an idea of what will be in the Institute. Money is also being raised in North America by the Friends of Underwater Exploration, an organisation based in Boston and chaired by author and trustee Benchley.

"We are doing this through private backing only,'' says Saul. "We didn't want any Government support. The idea is that once the Institute is built, it will run itself. We're aiming for 200,000 visitors to the Institute a year, and we expect every Bermudian to come at least once a year. Right now, the Aquarium is the single biggest tourist attraction. They get 120,000 visitors a year, with just eight parking bays. This thing will work if we get 200,000.

Dockyard was not economically viable - we would get maybe 50,000 people there, and in St. George's we would not be getting 200,000 visitors.

"There is a need to have an attraction closer to Hamilton. We think we can get 200,000 people a year. I don't think that's unreasonable when you consider what we'll have to offer - whether it's a lecture by Benchley, or the latest underwater film footage in 3-D.

"Think about it. A 10-year-old will be able to walk up to one of the terminals and look up, let's say, ocean currents to find out about ocean currents around Bermuda. Or the university student who's doing a project can get all the information they need to know about ocean currents and get the information printed out to take away with them. Sailors, for instance, will be able to get information on how to cross the Gulf Stream and its eddies when they are racing to Bermuda. Or they'll be able to find out where they went wrong after the race.

"If people want to know more about Jack Lightbourn's shells, they can go to the machine and look up specific types of shells - harbour conchs, for example. They can find out everything there is to know about them. The possibilities are endless.

"The National Geographic has told us they can supply us with enough film that if we started to run it tomorrow, we would still be running it in a year without any repeats.

"One of the major oil companies here said they have models of all their underground drilling facilities.

"And the other day we got talking to one of the guys from Cable & Wireless.

They were saying that one of their cable ships had a broken cable because a sperm whale had gotten trapped underneath one at some horrendous depth. We started talking about sperm whales, and you know they are known to feed on giant squids. Well, when the sperm whales are feeding they are said to give off this `sonar boom' which stuns the squids. They can hold their breath for up to an hour and they dive to extreme depths.

"This is the sort of thing that should be shared with the public. The research is available. "People may also be able to get in a model of (Dr.

William) Beebe's bathysphere and look out the glass window and see what Beebe saw. You look through the glass with your 3-D glasses on and up will all these weirdos from the deep.'' Beebe was the first man to initiate deep water exploration 60 years ago with descents off Bermuda to more than 3,000 feet below the surface in his bathysphere, hanging silently from a single cable. The Beebe Project, named after William Beebe,became marine biology's first wholesale study of the deep.

The Project, started in Bermuda in 1984, was the first concerted effort in 50 years to understand the range and variety of deep water life. It began shedding new light on the mysteries of the deep, including the first close-up look at the six-gill sharks, and the first attempt to put the discoveries on film using 3-D video to study the deep water animals in their own habitat.

Tucker became involved in the Beebe Project in its early stages in Bermuda. He acted as the guide for the Project, and was responsible for selecting sites for deep ocean submersible dives. Some scientists believe Tucker knows more about Bermuda waters that anyone else knows about any other body of water. He shared all he knew about the deep with the Project's scientists and they gave him the opportunity to make the trip to the ocean bottom, and see for himself what he only could have imagined. They were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to research the waters his long lines and echo sounders have been exploring for years.

It is through his involvement in the Beebe Project and his close association with many to puner water scientists that the Institute was able to attract some of its international advisors. "Teddy Tucker knows more about marine biology that any other man alive,'' Saul says. "The Russians think he's next to God. In Japan, they declare some people as national treasures. I think if there was something like tha there, Teddy Tucker should be so designated. It's incredible how respected he is worldwide.'' To Tucker, though, the Institute means more to him than just there cognition he and his diving colleagues will get from it. It means that Bermudians will get the opportunity to learn about the waters around Bermuda.

"It will not only be an education, but entertainment as well for the public, the young children, and visitors. I think there is a vast and unlimited interest in the ocean. The public has alway shada real fascination with it, whether it's shipwrecks or what lives in the ocean. It's often said that the ocean is the last frontier on earth.'' A diver, with a prototype mini-rover photgraphic robot, explores a French wreck off Bermuda's west end.

An artist's impression of the planned institute. The underground car park at centre is no longer part of the plan.

American businessman Ned Johnson: his foundations have pledged $5 million towards building the institute.

SEPTEMBER 1993 RG MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 1993 RG MAGAZINE