Day 4 – Moving Day
Today, the term early bird gets the worm applied. Brian and I hit the water promptly at 4:30 am in the still on the early morning. Swimming out we hoped to catch a sponge pumping event during our sampling regiment. SCORE!! After getting back with samples in hand we checked the data coming in real time from our instrument – the underwater mass spectrometer, and low and behold a perfect hit. We could see a distinct change in the chemistry of the water flowing out of the sponge – what we call a sponge pumping event. I am not sure how we could do it without Aquarius! Moving day took up the rest of our dive time. With several days of good data on one set of sponges we opted to move on to get more replicates at other sponges. In most cases we had to move the equipment less than 10 feet, but with all the probes, tripods, tubing, and realignments…….It takes longer that you might think. The day was rounded off by a visit from the host and cameraman filming for a new Discovery Channel show for kids. They were very enthusiastic and excited to see our undersea home and all the science going on. Keep your remote flipping on your television and you will come by us in a couple of months.
Sleeping with the fish,
Howard
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