Mission Journal 6 — Howard Mendolovitz: Mission Day 6: Saturday, August 20th, 2005
Well, we just finished an extensive two day vertical array experiment and it could not have gone much better. Intensive planning and coordination resulted in a fully instrumented array and continuous water sampling from 8 am to 6 pm daily. The team work was text book. Team topside filtered water samples aboard the R.V. Legacy, while shuttling clean sample containers to the bottom, just as we were ready to start our next collection. Our tight dive plan maximized everyone’s excursion time while keeping Aquanauts always sampling and still taking into account tank fills.
During the long days we had many pleasant encounters with our finned friends. From a nurse shark to an eagle ray, to a sea turtle, and of course Noah! On one trip back to fill tanks, Noah was chilling out under the grating. As we approached, he cruised under Aquarius. As he cleared the habitat, a small school of yellowtail snapper followed him. Why, I’m not sure, but Noah whipped around, sending the yellowtail back to Aquarius for protection as he tootled off along the reef.