Boats to Build

I grew up in the central Oregon high desert town called Sisters. At first the population was about 500 counting the cats and dogs, but that has changed. In this desert I wanted to be an Oceanographer, probably from watching all those episodes of “Sea Hunt” and “Jacques Cousteau”. Go figure. Years later when living Hawaii I did manage to get into ocean research but quite different than I expected.

My goal of being a scientist didn't pan out but my trade skills as a machinist did. I first started working for a small engineering company developing a very deep diving remote operated vehicle (ROV). This later lead to another job with the University of Hawaii's manned submersibles program aptly, named HURL. For many years HURL piled the Hawaiian waters counting fish, retreiving military things that got lost overboard to diving into undersea volcanos.

I later went to New Zealand with a submersible project in Milford Sound south island, then to working with James Cameron filming “Aliens of the Deep”. After this I did several other undersea documentaries that needed sub pilots and technicians, (think NHK/Discovery, Sharks, and Search of the Giant Squid).

In 2023 sadly, I was involved with Ocean Gate expeditions when it ended in tragedy. I was contracted to be safety diver and LRT operator, After the implosion I participated in the search, and after the remains were found I stayed on site to join Pelagic Research Services to help with recovery. A very sad time.

Lately, I design and build science packages sampling devices for various operations. I look forward to sharing with you things from such harsh yet amazingly wonderful and place.

Cheers,

Tym Catterson

tymcatterson@gmail.com