Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory
The Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) is a regional undersea research program within the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, in Honolulu. It is considered one of the more important of the independently run undersea research laboratories in the U.S. HURL operated two deep diving submersibles, the Pisces IV and Pisces V and specializes in supporting scientific ocean research and exploration. HURL is actively involved in monitoring deep-sea ecosystems, including coral habitats and fisheries, and conducts maritime archaeology research including documenting World War II wreckage from the Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. HURL suspended operations after the retirement of the support ship Kaʻimikai-o-Kanaloa, but may resume operations in the future. Science Dive Program The Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory was founded in cooperation with U. S. government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1980. HURL became a regional center in NOAA's National Undersea Research Program (NURP). The University of Hawaiʻi had been donated the submersible Makali’i (formerly Star II), which launched HURL's science dive program on July 14, 1981, with its first dive into the Oak Crater in Eniwetok Atoll. This three-month long expedition included scientists from the Defense Nuclear Agency, Lawrence Livermore Labs, and the Air Force Weapons Agency to conduct research on the effects of nuclear testing. Since 1981, they spent nearly 9,000 hours underwater around the Pacific Ocean. HURL has facilitated the long-term study of the Lo’ihi submarine volcano since 1987 and has analyzed its unique ecosystem and documented the growth of this new Hawaiian Island including investigation the collapse event in 1996. In 2005, they conducted a five-month expedition from Honolulu, Hawaii to New Zealand along the Tonga-Kermadec arc during which they conducted 78 submersible dives and explored 13 different active volcanoes, 12 of which had never been explored before. In 2011, HURL made the first two-sub dive into Lo’ihi's pit crater for a National Geographic documentary and celebrated 1,000 dives with the Pisces submersibles. At the end of March in 2012, NOAA zeroed out all funding to HURL and closed down its National Undersea Research Center (NURC, formerly NURP). All program assets owned by NOAA were gifted to the University of Hawaiʻi. The lab continued to operate on residual funding and on what limited funding that the University of Hawaiʻi could provide. Anticipating this decline in funding, HURL resurrected some of their old technology by placing their Launch, Recovery, and Transport (LRT) back into service. The LRT-12 and the LRT-30a were submersible pontoon barges, that were used from 1981–1996 to launch the Makali’i and the Pisces V respectfully before the arrival of University of Hawaiʻi research ship, Kai’imi’kai o’ Kanaloa (KOK). By returning to operating of the LRT-30a, the lab was able to reduce their day rate by nearly 70%, thus making them more attractive to potential customers. HURL continued to operate through the 2013 and 2014 dive seasons logging another 46 dives. Maritime Heritage and documentary dives contributed more needed financing, but it was