Maybe. It was based on some high end sonar of the day, rather than visual. They spent a ton of money on the thing, and then couldn't figure out how to launch and recover it without turning the crew into cherry preserves. Then the sonar improved immensely, making the entire project redundant. Will Forman was building Deep Jeep at the time and said his entire life support system cost less than the TAXES on theirs, if they'd been paying taxes, that is.