← SCP Cost Explorer Read on SCP Wiki ↗
SCP-4416 Unknown ~ medium confidence
SCP-4416
Expected annual
$2.4M
One-time setup
$6.2M
Annual recurring
$2.3M
Personnel
13
Estimated one-time startup costs are approximately $6.18M driven primarily by a large escalation contingency reserve and equipment purchases; recurring annual costs are about $2.33M/yr driven mainly by staff wages, legal/PR/cover operations, and ongoing research/monitoring.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $6.2M
Escalation Reserve $5.5M
[#27] Contingency/scale-up reserve for worst-case escalation (planning-level reserve).
Equipment $332K
[#2, #3, #4, #16, #20, #23] Boat purchase, ROV and camera housings, aerial drones purchase, evidence storage lockers/cold storage, vehicle/trailer purchase, conditional capture/holding equipment (modular holding) one-time purchases.
Initial Research And Lab Setup $304K
[#5, #6, #7, #10, #17, #22, #26] Initial acoustic/satellite tags purchase, acoustic receiver array purchase, sonar/environmental sensors purchase, initial operative training/equipment (research side), initial data/storage setup costs, initial containment research design/approvals, long-tail archival retrieval one-time costs.
Facilities $22K
[#1] Office/garage fit-out (electrical, secure comms, wet-work bench, refrigeration) one-time fit-out estimate.
Initial Counter Messaging Setup $20K
[#12] Initial legal/PR/counter-messaging research and content creation one-time setup.
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $2.3M/yr
Staff Wages $1.0M/yr
[#8, #9] Salaries for core research team (2 marine biologists, 2 field techs, 1 project manager) and operational/security staff (Foundation agents/operatives + local guards).
Cover Story And Legal $425K/yr
[#11, #12, #13, #14] Media monitoring/web-crawling and analysts, ongoing counter-messaging/ad buys/legal takedowns, outreach/liaison funding to local agencies and cover agreements, legal retainer/response fund.
Research And Monitoring $335K/yr
[#17, #22, #6, #5] Ongoing data storage/compute and analyst time, containment research program recurring budgets, servicing of receiver arrays and redeployments tied to monitoring program.
Intelligence Operations $125K/yr
[#10] Ongoing undercover/infiltration operations, informant payments and operational costs for human intelligence.
Logistics And Transport $107K/yr
[#2, #18, #20] Vessel maintenance/insurance/fuel, travel & rapid-response team travel/vehicle rental/per diem, vehicle insurance/maintenance/fuel for field deployments.
Supplies And Consumables $85K/yr
[#3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #16, #25] ROV repairs/consumables, drone batteries/repairs/spares, tag replacements/redistributions, receiver servicing dives, instrument maintenance/calibration, evidence storage consumables/shipping, misc PPE and small equipment.
Facilities Maintenance $64K/yr
[#1] Annual lease for coastal NC field office/garage and basic utilities/maintenance.
Medical Emergency Fund $62K/yr
[#15] Annual medical & emergency response fund for treatment, evacuation, reimbursements to local EMS, and contingency rescue support.
Community Mitigation Grants $60K/yr
[#21] Small grants/sponsorships to local beach organizations to maintain cover and social engineering.
Insurance $25K/yr
[#24] Commercial insurance, bonds and liability management for boats, vehicles, offices.
Training And Certifications $18K/yr
[#19] Annual training, safety refreshers and dive/boat/ROV certifications.
Special Capture Contingency $10K/yr
[#23] Annual budgeted contingency for per-event mobilization if anomalous sharks require temporary capture/holding mobilization.
Long Tail Monitoring $10K/yr
[#26] Ongoing archival retrieval, purchase of broadcast footage rights and pay-for-access databases if long-term historical monitoring continues.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $2.3M/yr
80.0% probability / year
Normal year with routine monitoring, research, cover and operations and no major incidents.
routine monitoring no major media exposure no anomalous encounters
🚨 Minor Incident $2.5M/yr
12.0% probability / year +$125K vs baseline
Localized incident: boat damage, single severe injury or small legal/PR event requiring extra response and payouts.
boat accident hospitalization of civilian or staff localized media leak requiring PR surge
🚨 Major Breach $3.1M/yr
6.0% probability / year +$750K vs baseline
Significant operational failure or public exposure: multiple injuries, prosecution/large settlements, loss of vessel/evidence requiring extensive legal and investigatory spend.
large media exposure/subpoena multi-person injury evidence compromise
🚨 Escalation Event $4.3M/yr
2.0% probability / year +$2.0M vs baseline
Encounter with demonstrably anomalous sharks or rapidly-escalating phenomenon requiring large-scale mobilization and use of contingency reserve.
anomalous shark encountered widespread memetic spread need for mass beach closures and federal-level response
👥 Personnel 13 total
Role Count Notes
Research Scientist (Marine Biologist) 2 [#8] Senior + junior marine biologists responsible for study design, tagging and analysis; salaries included in staff_wages.
Field Technician 2 [#8] Field techs for deployments, ROV operation and sample handling; salaries included in staff_wages.
Project Manager 1 [#8] Program manager coordinating operations, reporting and liaison; salary included in staff_wages.
Security Officer / MTF Agent 4 [#9] Foundation agents/operatives for surveillance, evidence collection and liaison duties; salaries included in staff_wages.
Local Security / Guards 2 [#9] Local guards for field office/boat storage; salaries included in staff_wages.
Data/Media Analyst 2 [#11, #17] Analysts for web-crawling, media monitoring, data processing and GIS; salaries included in staff_wages/research_and_monitoring.
📋 Confidence Notes
Many line items are well-defined commercial costs (boats, leases, salaries) raising confidence, but ranges are wide and the anomalous/escalation elements (probability and scale) are highly uncertain; mid-range estimates were used for budgeting.
← SCP-4415 ↑ All SCPs SCP-4417 →