Mission & Project Info | NOAA’s Aquarius Undersea Laboratory
Mission Blog

Robert asked: what kind of discoveries have you been a part of.

Hello Robert,

During this mission we haven’t discovered any new species.
However, we have learned a lot about the movement behavior of the fishes that we came here to study.
So far it appears as though the black grouper like to lay in the sand in deep water (around 70 – 80 feet),
hogfish like to rummage through the sand looking for food, and blue parrotfish like to swim over the reef and bite at it to eat algae growing on it. However, we still need to analyze the data so that we can be more confident about what we say the fishes are doing and how they move across the reef throughout the day.  And this information can be used to create effective marine reserves to protect these fish.

Thank you for your question and for following our mission.

Cheers,

Matt Subia

Aquarius Aquanaut

CSUMB

Amber Diekmann asked: Hi,
I was wondering, if Mr. Houwen is down at the aquarius for a short time period, how can he be down there for a short time if it takes 17 hours to adjust to the different pressures of air?

Amber,

That is a very good question. The 17 hour figure that you mention is the decompression period that Dewey spoke about in the third show only applies to people who have been submerged for longer periods of time. That is why the aquanauts are called “saturation” divers. After an extended period of time, the body’s tissues are saturated with nitrogen and so they have to undergo the decompression treatment.

I was diving within “no-decompression limits” meaning I was diving for only a short period of time, so there is no need for decompression. My “dive” this morning, which consisted of a couple of minute descent to the Aquarius, about 40 minutes in the habitat for the show, and a couple of minute ascent totaled only 53 minutes at a maximum depth of 50 feet. My dive tables, which normal scuba divers use, allow for a maximum of seventy minutes under those conditions. In fact, since I’ve been out of the water now for over 4 hours, I could actually do another dive right now to that depth and be able to stay down for 49 more minutes without having to decompress. I was well within my limits.

Steve Houwen
Alameda High School

Amber Diekmann asked: Hi This is for Mr. Houwen, How are the red cells affected by being under water?

Amber,
Typically, red blood cells remain largely unaffected by the pressure of diving. Recent research has been quoted though that speaks of Red Cell Rigidity, which describes red blood cells getting ‘harder’ which may cause the slowing of rbc’s passing through the capillaries, and that the increased pressure of Nitrogen can be responsible. The accuracy of this research is highly debated right now, and probably only an issue with very deep diving, far beyond the research depths here.

Steve Houwen
Alameda High School

Today (Sunday) was very successful! The science team followed a total of 27 fishes throughout the day. We split up the observations pretty evenly among the three species (black grouper, blue parrotfish, and hogfish). Jere and I started out along the Ridgeline to get a few parrotfish and groupers. We swung by our new favorite spot where, for four days straight now, we have seen the aggregation of midnight parrotfish (about 4-5), filefishes (about 4-5), and black groupers (about 2-3). It is quite a sight to see all of these species foraging together on one small cluster of coral. The coral cluster has been different every day but the species makeup of the group stays the same. We are hoping to go check on them one more time tomorrow morning.

On our afternoon dive, we headed out near the Kamper station and headed off to a new section of reef we had not yet explored. Suddenly, I had to blink because there were two small (~1m) bonnethead sharks swimming along the reef. Then, they started attacking one another! Just for a second though, one swam one way and the other in the opposite direction. We tried to follow one, but he was going way too fast for us to catch up. Then, not 10 seconds later, a giant Southern stingray lifted off about 15 meters away from us, and swam along the reef. It was a pretty incredible 45 seconds! That’s one of my favorite things about the ocean, you can swim around all day seeing very cool stuff and then suddenly something even more amazing happens!

I am so happy to be here once again. My last mission was such an incredible experience, I never thought I’d get to go again. I forgot how indescribably comforting it is to lay in my bunk, listen to some tunes, and watch the fish swim by the viewport (AKA the window). There are these three huge Goliath groupers that hang out around the habitat at night; they just lumber past the viewport every once in awhile — peering in on us.

We are decompressing early, begining tomorrow. I’m a little sad to be leaving early, but I must admit I am excited to see the sky!

Ashley Knight

Aquarius Aquanaut

CSUMB

Hi,

My name is Katrina and I’m from Ada Merritt K-8 Center in Miami,Florida. I was just wandering in case of an emegency what would you guys do and how would the entire crew get to the surface?

Dear Katrina

Hello and great question.  In case we had to end a mission due to an emergency, all of the aquanauts would evacuate Aquarius with a mask and breath through a very small scuba bottle (which can be held in one hand).  All power would be secured, and valves and doors in Aquarius would be closed, if possible.  All of the aquanauts would stage into the emergency gazebo, which is a safe haven right next to the entrance of Aquarius.  The gazebo resembles a thimble on four legs and is filled partially with air.  Within minutes, an emergency response team would dive down and help bring us safely to the surface.  However, because we have been underwater for a long time (considered saturated), all aquanauts would be rushed to our shore facility to begin decompression.

Dewey Smith

Aquarius Aquanaut and Habitat Technician