Sam B. Upchurch SDII Global Corporation Tampa, Florida Bridging the Gap Sam B. Upchurch SDII Global Corporation Tampa, Florida

The Opportunity to Share Interests is Important Cave divers provide access that most karst persons cannot enjoy Cave divers provide public awareness and popularize problems Karst scientists provide understanding and credibility Karst Science Cave Exploration

What Divers Bring to the Table Local knowledge Access to locations that are otherwise inaccessible Expertise Public involvement and awareness

What Karst Science Brings to the Table Credibility and access Contributions to community welfare Understanding as to why or when caverns systems develop Support by specialized scientists (biologists, paleontologists, geochemists, karst hydrologists)

Institutional Problems with Use of Cave Divers Liability issues Requirement to use occupation cave diving protocols Need for standard data collection protocols Need for quality assurance plans Absence of trained divers

Divers’ Problems With Working With Institutions Loss of control of proprietary data Excessive rules and regulations Inability to communicate effectively No funds for support Needs are driven by schedules and budgets

How Karst Science Can Become Involved Funding sources Development of sampling protocols Development of quality assurance plans Find ways to involve the cave diving community Train cave divers to recognize important data (biota, karst features, cave sediments, conduiting, flow systems, etc.)

How Divers Can Become Involved Talk to the scientists and engineers and share information Express interest in what scientists do and ask to be involved Make interesting observations available Share cave maps

What We Need to Do Jointly Find ways to minimize institutional liability concerns Maintain communication Develop a clear set of goals to enhance communication and data transfer

What We Need to Do Jointly (cont.) Portions of cavern system are known Most of system is inaccessible to divers We need to find ways to integrate information We need to develop methods to look at the interface between the accessible cave system and the bulk of the springshed

Proposed Consortium Action Items Development of glossary of terms Development of sampling protocols and a quality assurance plan Develop training program to introduce cave divers to technical issues and karst science and karst scientists to cave diving Standardization of data and development of data repositories