Mission Journal 8 — Howard Mendolovitz: Mission Day 8: Monday, August 22nd, 2005
Things are still going really well. In order to understand how sponges behave we have been running day/night experiments. Last night it was my turn to make the hookah run. Hookah is a way to dive without all the heavy gear. Basically, you have an air line attached to the habitat and off you go. Since we leave equipment out into the night, somebody has to recover it after midnight to ensure that it is charged up and ready to go the next day. So slightly after midnight, I donned my wetsuit and off into the night I went. After a short swim, I came upon the gear only to discover a basket star had climbed to the very top of one of the instruments and spread its arms in search of food. These guys stay tucked away all day and skulk out for their nightly feeding. I tried to get a good picture of him, but unfortunately the lights on the camera were dead from a busy day of work. So instead, I played with him a little bit. Touching his fingers lightly it was amazing to watch him coil his arms in hoping for a tasty morsel. After gathering the instrument, I finally looked back and saw Aquarius glowing in the night. Very cool!!!