The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) and Cabrito Consulting will collaborate for the implementation of the project “Calamar Park”. This will be a manned underwater station off the coast of Greece, with an expandable habitable area, which will be serviced by a mobile habitat. The HCMR is the most important marine research center in Greece, with three research institutes, a fleet of research vessels and two public aquaria. The Cabrito Consulting – HCMR collaboration is a unique opportunity to create an underwater habitat in Greek waters that will serve a multitude of research, education and commercial purposes.
The facility will be known as the “European Underwater Research Station” and is intended to accommodate a group of up to eight inhabitants. To this end, two concepts are being pursued in parallel: a mobile design, which will be used for changing locations and operations, and a semi-mobile concept of a large habitat that can be transported to other destinations at longer intervals. Both concepts have a modular design so that both in-house and external systems can be connected using a standardized coupling.
The design follows long studies on the requirements of multidisciplinary sectors, for which a network of eleven academic and private sectors has been established. These sectors include archaeology, marine conservation, space applications, marine science and education, as well as culture, advertisement and tourism.
The project aims to make the island of Rhodes the center for the development of technologies for long-term stays on the seabed or in mid-water, to be reproduced and exported to other countries, based on the business cases specified, across the academic disciplines. Due to the central location of the Greek islands, the facility is mainly focused on missions from the 37 countries of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EUROMED), but will also be made available to other interested parties. For any information please contact Dr. C.C. Mylonas at mylonas@hcmr.gr.