The Aquanauts are now decompressing in the Aquarius, slowly being brought to sea-level pressure while still living 50 feet below the surface at Conch Reef. It’s been a very successful mission, and all of our science objectives were met. Inga and I have been kept busy providing the Aquanauts with the materials they needed for experiments, and changing out electronic equipment, but they’re the ones who did the hard work — the 6 hour dives, cleaning caging material and pounding spikes into limestone to mark sponges. We visited with them this morning for a photo session, and you could tell how anxious and excited they were to come back up, see the sun, and breathe fresh air – I guess humans really aren’t meant to be completely aquatic!
I’ve been diving on the same reefs here in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) off Key Largo for about 20 years, and this year I was struck with how many more fish there are on the reef now than in past years. This comes after a research trip that I took in April with Tse-Lynn, Steve, and my former PhD student, Tim Henkel, to 5 islands in the Southern Caribbean (St. Eustatius, St. Lucia, Martinique, Curacao, Bonaire) to survey fish and sponge populations. There were very few fish on the reefs in these locations, even though the coral cover was sometimes higher than in the Keys. But without question, the Keys have much larger populations of reef fishes, and many larger predatory fishes, than any of these other places. I credit the Sanctuary, and believe we are now seeing the real benefits of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Corals are unlikely to recover in my lifetime, but fish populations may, and with the large barrel and tube sponge populations doing very well on Florida’s reefs, recreational divers will still have a lot to see and photograph.
We look forward to coming back next year to retrieve our year-long growth experiments and to tend the long-term monitoring plots we’ve been visiting since 1997. With luck, next year’s mission will be as successful as this one!
By Joe Pawlik, PI and surface support diver.
You would have thought that I would have learnt my lesson from last year, but when I was asked if I wanted to do another Aquarius mission this summer, I said,”Sure.” It has been 9 days since I’ve seen the sun, and while it’s not been 8h/day of hammering stakes into the ground, I have spent significant time with the 3lb sledgehammer, and plenty of quality time with the fire corals on Conch Reef. It’s times like this that really make you focus on the little things, the things that really matter. Like…how awesome is it to get free WIFI 45ft underwater? I’m reading emails and fish are swimming by the viewport. It’s always impressive, the level of support we receive from the ARB staff. From our (sometimes) slightly sadistic trainers (it’s for our own good though) to the amazing potters that carry down all manner of stuff for us. Our surface support divers have even brought us a watermelon! And our hardworking Hab Techs keep us safe and alive and closely monitor us at all times. It’s been a real treat to have all these fresh fruit and veggies here in the can, and some wonderful banana bread. Yesterday we even had a surprise ‘POW’ package from our support vessel Liberty Star containing little chocs (Step away from the chocolate, Saul…). Thanks everyone, all these gestures put smiles on our faces and we appreciate it more than words can say.
What else? Us aquanauts always start our dive excursions by slathering on copious amounts of dead dinosaur goop. That’s right, Vaseline. It’s the only thing that stands between us and the funkiest skin rash this side of the ocean floor. A new unscented jar of Vaseline with its surface unblemished by countless scummy fingers is a thing of beauty to behold indeed. Before I came into the Habitat, I thought we’ll be salty and stinky for 10 days, jumping into the sea to escape the unbearable stench of one another. Who knew that we would have fresh water inside the Habitat, and hot water to boot! There might still be a faint whiff, but a hot shower (Navy style of course, no Hollywood showers here!) after a 6-h excursion followed by woolly socks equals instant bliss. So yes, while there have been challenges to living and working down here, sometimes one has to step outside the comfort zone in order to understand the truly important things in life.
And don’t forget the Vaseline.
Tse-Lynn Loh
Unfortunately the Aquarius Habitat can only accommodate six inhabitants at one time (two technicians and four aquanaut scientists) so I sadly couldn’t saturate for this mission. Working as a surface support diver, however, has been one of the most interesting, illuminating and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had.
Joe and I have been collecting sponges for a caging experiment set up at sites near the habitat. Joe is investigating the effect of “top-down” pressure on sponges; in other words he’s investigating whether fish and other animals that eat sponges are influencing what sponges are predominant on the reef. We put some of the sponges in cages so that they can’t be eaten and compare their growth after a year to sponges that were left out of cages. This year we are using four species: the branching vase sponge (Callyspongia vaginalis), the green finger sponge (Iotrochota birotulata), a sponge with no apparent common name Callyspongia armigera, and the lumpy overgrowing sponge/pink rope sponge (Desmapsamma anchorata). When Joe and I go out collecting, he swivels and pivots over the reef looking for our desired species while I trail behind him avoiding his fins and enjoying the scenery. When Joe sees a suitable sponge he uses a scalpel to slice off 4 to 6 inch-long sections that he hands to me. I slip them into a plastic bag inside my mesh goody-bag, careful not to squeeze them or to lose any of the pieces already in the bag, all the while keeping track of the total number of each species we have collected so far.
Although these aren’t strictly leisure dives, being in the water so much means that we inevitably see amazing critters and behaviors. On one of our collection dives, as soon as we hit the water Joe started pointing at something below us. I didn’t understand, because the three beautiful spotted eagle rays that I presumed he was trying to point out to me were far above and to the right of the direction of his finger. I started gesturing enthusiastically toward the rays that were quickly gliding into the distance, and as he turned, I saw the nurse shark below him that he had been trying to show me! We saw three more nurses on that dive alone, one of which we swam right over. She raised her head slightly looking at us as we passed, then flicked her tail and headed in the opposite direction.
While hunting for sponges on the edge of the reef, Joe and I were startled by a sudden movement. We watched as a lizardfish, moving faster than my eyes could track, zipped up and grabbed a wrasse in its mouth. The wrasse, only a little smaller than the lizardfish, wriggled and struggled, trying to escape, but the lizardfish managed to hang on. Despite the small size of the predator and his prey, Joe and I were both impressed by how fast and vicious the event had been.
In addition to our collection dives, Joe and I dive the habitat to bring down and pick up equipment for the aquanauts. We also bring them treats that they can’t get on a regular basis such as fresh fruit. Diving the habitat is always amazing. I love peering into the portholes and waving to the techs inside and swimming through the huge schools of fish that congregate there. There are all sorts of creatures living on and around the habitat, from goliath groupers and moray eels to giant hermit crabs and invasive lionfish. Whenever we bring down fruit we also get to see how it behaves under pressure. The lychee we brought the aquanauts didn’t seem as fleshy or juicy as they did at the surface, and the deeper I brought a whole watermelon the more strange cracking noises I could hear and feel from inside of it. I’m very curious to hear what it was like to eat.
The most surreal experience was going inside the habitat. The dive started out like any other, but then all of sudden you’re taking off your gear and rinsing off in a shower as damsel fish swim by the porthole next to you. Inside it’s much drier than I had expected, a bit chilly, but overall very comfortable and eerily similar to being in any other small room. The major reminders that you are 45 feet underwater are the foreign equipment all over the walls and the fishes that keep swimming by the window. It’s hard to believe that people can live on the ocean floor for 10 days, and I’ve been lucky enough to see first-hand all the hard work, preparation, training, and equipment that makes it possible.
By Inga Conti-Jerpe
Another day as an aquanaut! Woke up at six AM this morning, ate a quick breakfast and started getting ready for the day. Unfortunately, after a few days in Aquarius, my wet suit has compressed, leaving me vulnerable to the cold water of the deep, and today was the coldest day yet! We spent the six hour morning dive at around 75 feet at a sponge monitoring site. This site is part of a long term survey where we make observations on the giant barrel sponge Xestospongia muta. We monitor changes in their population by recording bleaching rates, incidence of disease, debris on sponges and new recruits to the population. We have another three days of diving to complete our goals and it looks like we will get everything completed.
Besides diving, our days mostly revolve around eating and sleeping. After coming in from a dive the first thing we do is shower, and then we check the score of the Redsox/Bruins game. Next we rehydrate one of our gourmet Mountain House meals, and eat the rest of the snacks. Finally, we get some much-needed rest before we do it all over again.
By John Hanmer, Aquanaut
19 June 2011
The scientists contine their hard work on the sea floor. As a habitat technician, it is obvious that 8 hours a day in the water is a lot of work for the aquanauts. They come back tired at lunch and even more tired at the end of the day. But the scientists took some time over the last few days to get some photos. Check them out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aquariusreefbase .
Aquarius also conducted another combined outreach and work dive with a hard hat diver from the habitat. Today it was my turn and I spent about two hours in the water working on the habitat and answering questions from viewers. You can check out the first half here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15465648 and the second half here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15466360 . Or, just join us tomorrow at approximately 2:30 pm Eastern Time when Lead Habitat Technician and former Navy diver Roger Garcia conducts another hard hat dive. We’ll again be taking questions, so keep them coming.
Thanks for watching. Good night from beneath the waves.
Saul Rosser
Habitat Technician and Operations Director