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

2. 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

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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.)

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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