-2survey ship shall be qualified and licensed as a Master. I then invite your attention to page 4 under Definitions, Section D Master (qualified and licensed) a person responsible for the operation of the vessel who has had experience with similar vessels on a body of water like that on which the individual expects to operate and who holds a validated operators or superior license. Those in essence are the requirements for BNL participation in a survey. There is another item in the letter of the 11th, namely, a letter dated 17 April 1979 to Mr. Otterman from Commander Utara. I quote at length from that letter because these are very important quotations and differentiations.“ With reference to your letter of 13 April 1979, I find the Litkanur II, 0N572028 an oceanographic research vessel as defined in Section 441 of Title 46 U.S. Code. An oceanographic research vessel is not considered a "passenger vessel," a "vessel carrying pas- sengers" or a "passenger carrying vessel" under the provisions of the U.S. Merchant Vessel Inspection and Manning Laws. Additionally, an oceanographic sesearch vessel shall not be deemed to be engaged in trade or commerce. all other regulations remain applicable. However, Now the most important paragraph of all in this entire letter is included in the next few lines “you are reminded that my determination is predicated upon the assurance that the Litkanur II is being employed exclusively in instruction in oceanography or linnglogy, or both, or exclusively in gceanagraphicresegrch. I end my quotation of the letter at that point and I would like to make it perfectly clear that Brookhaven Medical Survey team is in no way involved in oceanographic or linnographic research, or that this ship is used exclusively in an oceanographic research program. The BNL medical program is basically a passenger carrying program, the passengers being the medical survey team and such patients and passengers as are deemed necessary for completion of our assigned mission by the Department of Energy. To label what we are doing "oceanographic work" is a complete misnomer. Therefore, under the intent of this letter I would say the Litkanur II could not be considered an oceanographic research vessel and would request that Commander Utara reevaluate the requirements for the operation and manning of this vessel, a _ Bill, I understand the very difficult problems you've had dealing with these very fuzzy regulations relative to this ship and I wish that they could have been avoided. Hopefully some suitable alternative will be found in the near future. I would like to end on a happy note. Our last survey aboard the Litkanur, with a qualified Master aboard, Keith Coberly, was a marked improvement over our previous survey. There was still some discrepancies as I have noted in my trip report but basically the medical survey team and the ship's company worked together in close harmony and we greatly appreciated the support given us by Wayne Munk. I hope that future surveys will continue to function as smoothly. I'd be very interested in your responses and U.S. Oceanographic's responses to the definition of the mission of this vessel and to the Coast Guard's reaction to the very distinct difference between its use as a support ship for a medical mission and oceanographic research. Sincerely, HSP: gc CC: Bruce Wachholz, Ph.D., DOE Walter Weyzen, M.D., DOE Roger Ray, DOE, NV Enc. ob Sa ie 4 va r » ui Hugh S. Pratt, M.D. Director, BNL-Marshall Islands Survey