When is some enterprising person wanting to make a fortune going to invent something that repells barnacles? Aren't there things in seawater that don't seem to attract this growth as a place to explore. It just seems this is not impossible. Maybe something in nanotechnology.

... if it weren't for the huge array of communications stuff cluttering the top.

Oh, and those detours the scientist made it take -- you know, wasting time to do science and stuff.