Imagine the biggest bowl of Rice Krispies you have ever had. That is what Aquarius sounds like at night when all the snapping shrimp get going. One of the cool things about living in Aquarius is we get to see and hear all the creatures that are active at night, many of which are quite different than the ones you typically see during the day. Last night I did a dive on hookah, which is a really long regulator attached to Aquarius, to retrieve an instrument and get some water samples. As I was swimming along the excursion line, I saw a nurse shark foraging for its dinner. On my return trip, I could see Noah, the baby Goliath Grouper, hanging out with the yellowtail outside our window. This evening we had a turtle swim up to the window. These guys are never around to greet us when we get up for breakfast.
In addition to really cool fish watching, Aquarius allows us to collect loads of data. All of our experiments are going really well and keeping us very busy. It is hard to believe that we have been living in Aquarius for five days already. We spent today collecting water samples and will do more of the same tomorrow. The artificial habitat that we created for the outreach portion of our mission is already starting to attract some interest from curious fish.
Every day down here is like a new adventure. We have already seen so many cool things and accomplished so much, I can’t wait to see what the next nine days have in store for us.
Well, things are going really well. I can’t believe we have already been down here for four days. Along with our daily routines we have been gearing up for an intensive one day experiment. It entails placing sensors spaced out from the sea surface to ocean floor along a single line, also known as a vertical array. In addition we will be taking water samples throughout the day using a neat little system Niels built. It uses the pressure differential from the surface to create a vacuum allowing us to sample from many different spots but collecting at a single point source.
In the evening, I spend many an hour just staring out the view port. The light attracts fish near and far. A juvenile Goliath Grouper, Noah I call him, comes by every night. I would guess the “little” guy weighs forty pounds and is a couple of years old. He saunters around trying to blend in. At times Noah looks like he is pretending to be one of the yellowtail snappers, swimming with the school. Except he occasionally makes a quick stab at a slow swimmer. He has not hit one yet that we have seen, but you don’t get to be forty pounds by missing all the time. Mmmmmm, sushi! Go Noah!!
What’s the weather like on the surface? Down here it is always the same, blue and wet, perfect for diving. We have actually had great visibility the past several days. I would guess greater than sixty feet since I can see the buoys bobbing in the swell at the surface from the base of the habitat. Swimming up to Aquarius on these clear days is so cool because you are surrounded by sponges and coral and then when one looks ahead to the sand flat there is what appears to be an upside down submarine on stilts. It is like something out of a science fiction novel. Speaking of science, our experiments are going really well. Niels and I have been doing a lot of work with sponge flow rate. It is unbelievable how much water these sponges pump and how quickly they do it. It brings to mind a silly joke I once heard: Imagine how deep the ocean would be if there were not all of these sponges.
When not using our nine hours of dive time a day, we sit around the view port in the galley and watch fish. At night, a cloud of plankton attracted by the lights of Aquarius forms outside our window attracting dozens of fish. There are times when the cloud is so dense it looks like someone is pouring fish food into the water. Who needs a television when you have nature to entertain you?
First things first… WOW!! This is a blast.Things started a little slow scientifically but everything is coming together. With much help for the top support we have most of the telemetry coming in and a whole host of experiment are up and going. Today went by really fast. We spent six hours in the water this morning starting at 7:30am and by the time we stage in this evening is was just past 7pm.
On the fun front… while floating still minding my own business running an experiment a large object caught my eye. Turning slightly I see a 3 foot loggerhead turtle coming our way. As she glides closer she seems as interested in me as I am in her. Amazingly she came within a couple of feet picking up the pace as she pasted. Looking over my shoulder she banked hard to the right catching one last glance of me before disappearing into the reef.
Not a bad way to spend a day!!
Well, it is one year later and we are back to play with sponges again. After being evacuated by Hurricane Charley last year, I am excited that we have an extra long mission this year! We acquired a new team member (Howard) in an off-season trade that sent last year’s team member Jeremy to Old Dominion. Although sponges are the focus of our study, it was the fish providing all the entertainment today. On our first dive there were two territorial wrasse displaying to each other. They would swim up to each other, get really close, open there mouths so it almost looked like they were smiling, and then swim away and repeat this process. During our surface interval, we had a parrot fish and a blue tang (like Dorrie from Finding Nemo) cleaning our window. When not watching fish, we were busy setting up our instruments that will how much water the sponges are pumping. There was the biggest Diadema I have ever seen right next to one of our sponges. Overall, it was a really successful day!