Aquarius Undersea Laboratory » August, 2005 Saturation

Mission Journal 10 — Meredith Kintzing and Howard Mendolovitz: Mission Day 10: Wednesday, August 24th, 2005

Aaron Alexander — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 05:00:48 +0000

So we are currently at 21 feet, but still physically sitting at 46 feet. You do the math. Unfortunately, due to Tropical Storm Katrina bearing down on us, our underwater adventure is being curtailed. We first noticed the storm pop up last night and thought nothing of it before going to bed. Much to our dismay, by 7 AM the word came down from above that an early decompression was going to commence at 5 PM. With our science gear littered across the reef, we had a hectic morning gathering our instruments and wrapping up our experiments. It was by far the hardest morning of the mission. With all the gear tucked away we finally found ourselves with a little down time. While we relaxed at our favorite, and only, table, a giant visitor made a cameo appearance. Coming out from under Aquarius, Noaah’s dad Earl chilled for a bit outside the view port. He seems to be more successful at scooping up the yellowtail than Noaah as we guess he weighs in at a hefty 250 pounds. As day moved into night, we could tell the storm was overhead. You can actually see the lightning from down here. It is as if there are a bunch of photographers flashing away lighting up the reef. We hope you have enjoyed our Aquarius mission as much as we have. Many thanks to Craig, Kea, and the rest of the Aquarius team for all of your help and support. See you on the surface!

Howard and Meredith over and out.

Mission Journal 9 — Meredith Kintzing: Mission Day 9: Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005

Aaron Alexander — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 05:00:13 +0000

Today was our last full day of research. Tomorrow, we begin the educational outreach portion of our stay, where we will be doing live broadcasts to high school students to explain our research and answer questions. It was a lot of hustling around to try and gather as much data as we can before we switch gears. While setting up our vacuum filtration system, we were surprised to look up and see the crowd that had gathered around. Some curious yellowtail, Spanish hogfish, and schoolmasters had congregated and seemed as interested in the results of our experiment as we were. Niels snapped a great picture of several of the fish peering into our flasks. Later while filtering water from a sponge so we can determine what it is eating, a small damselfish kept nipping my fingers to let me know I was invading his territory. You have nothing to worry about from the giant barracuda that circle Aquarius; it is the little guys like the damselfish and sergeant majors that cause you to be wary.

Something interesting that you might not know about Aquarius is that we have pneumatic doors. These are doors that we do not have to push, but pull a lever and compressed air causes them to slide open. Every time I head to the wet porch to begin a dive, the pneumatic door makes me feel like I am setting off on an exciting adventure, which is a pretty good description of a typical day in Aquarius.

Mission Journal 8 — Howard Mendolovitz: Mission Day 8: Monday, August 22nd, 2005

Aaron Alexander — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 05:00:09 +0000

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!!!

Mission Journal 7 — Meredith Kintzing: Mission Day 7: Sunday, August 21st, 2005

Aaron Alexander — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 05:00:10 +0000

Make a fist. Now put your thumb and pinky fingers up and twist your hand back and forth. This how you signal cool underwater and that is how I would describe our last couple of days. After finishing the vertical array experiment yesterday, we have gone back to cranking out data on sponges. By placing dye near the sponge, we can see how much water it is filtering. One of the giant barrel sponges was shooting out a plume of yellow water at least fifteen feet high! Although the water is pretty warm here, there have been waves of cold water coming across the reef periodically over the past several days. Niels and I did our version of underwater jumping jacks as we floated above the reef to warm up after encountering one of these cold pockets. As we were finishing our last dive of the day, a huge sea turtle swam past Niels and I straight towards one of the Aquarius cameras before veering off onto the reef. We both smiled as we swam towards our underwater home. Don’t let anyone try to tell you science isn’t cool!

Mission Journal 6 — Howard Mendolovitz: Mission Day 6: Saturday, August 20th, 2005

Aaron Alexander — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 05:00:46 +0000

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.

Mission Journal 5 — Meredith Kintzing: Mission Day 5: Friday, August 19th, 2005

Aaron Alexander — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 05:00:35 +0000

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.

Mission Journal 4 — Howard Mendolovitz: Mission Day 4: Thursday, August 18th, 2005

Aaron Alexander — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 05:00:49 +0000

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!!

Mission Journal 3 — Meredith Kintzing: Mission Day 3: Wednesday, August 17th, 2005

Aaron Alexander — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 05:00:21 +0000

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?

Mission Journal 2 — Howard Mendlovitz: Mission Day 2: Tuesday, August 16th, 2005

Aaron Alexander — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 05:00:04 +0000

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!!

Mission Journal 1 — Meredith Kintzing: Mission Day 1: Monday, August 15th, 2005

Aaron Alexander — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 05:00:30 +0000

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!