Mission & Project Info | NOAA’s Aquarius Undersea Laboratory
Mission Blog

A busy day four miles off of Key Largo. At 8 this morning, all four aquanauts took off for a long swim to two of our deeper sites near the habitat. To get to sites far away from Aquarius, we’re required to follow excursion lines, which are permanent lines that lead to various areas. From overhead, these lines or ropes must look somewhat similar to spokes of a bicycle wheel with the habitat at the hub. It takes about 10 minutes to swim out to these remote sites, but most have a tank fill-station or gazebo, which is a small inverted structure filled with air where we can stand up and fill our scuba tanks.

We spent about an hour down at 105 feet mapping stomatopod holes to get an idea of what species are there and how they are distributed. Luckily, because of the clear tropical waters here off Florida, there is sufficient light to work but it is quite blue. After returning to the habitat, my dive buddy Pam and I put some flags near stomatopod burrows. Our surface-based team will come down later to inject some epoxy into the burrows, which will eventually harden, to get an idea of the overall shape of the stomatopod “homes.”

In the afternoon and evening, our surface team came to the habitat to work with us using the polarimeter, a device that measures polarized light reaching to the depths of our work sites. I worked the computer inside the habitat that controlled the polarimeter camera, while my advisor, Tom Cronin worked with the polarimeter outside in the water on top of the habitat. Tonight, Mark and Helen have been out doing plankton tows at multiple deep sites. At the same time, Pam worked outside on hookah and tried to collect stomatopod larvae with a dive light and hand net. The hookah consists of a regulator at the end of a long air hose, which allows easy diving around Aquarius and adjacent reef.

It’s now about 10:40 pm and it’s time to turn in, especially since we’re scheduled to do more polarimeter work starting at 6 in the morning! Looking out the window/porthole, it looks like most of the fish agree that it’s time for bed. See you tomorrow.

We are wrapping up the second day of our saturation mission, and have just turned in our dive log for tomorrow to the Aquarius surface support team. So far we are completing our research objectives, and having a great time. You never quite dry out, but then you don’t really need to dry out with the ocean right outside your door! We are even starting to settle into our new home – although it is still a surprise to see squid out your bedroom window.

My dive buddy Alex and I spent the morning testing a piece of equipment called a polarimeter that is used to measure polarized light in the water column. The actual data collection will occur tomorrow with the surface team. After a short break inside, we returned to hunt for stomatopods (mantis shrimp). Four different species live in the sandy bottom surrounding the habitat. We collected specimens of three of the species. The fourth species is quite large – up to about a foot in length. We set up a video camera and infrared lights in front of a burrow of one of these large stomatopods, to watch the animal’s behavior at night. The camera is linked to a video monitor in the habitat. On the video monitor a few minutes ago, we saw the stomatopod spear a fish. Not a bad dinner!

A highlight so far has been searching for stomatopod larvae at night. After about 9pm, if you head out with your dive light and shine it into the water column, you attract all kinds of interesting critters. It looks like a cross between a snowstorm and the night sky on a really clear night. If you turn your dive light off, you see beautiful bioluminescence glittering in the water, and when our lights are aimed down you see sting rays four feet wide. Looking forward to seeing the surface team tomorrow…

It is with no small amount of amazement that I sit here on my first night as an aquanaut, watching thousands of tiny larvae swarm at the window, with smaller fish behind and the large predatory snook swimming beyond, hoping for dinner. As I was swimming back to Aquarius along the excursion line at twilight, from the deep sandy plain where we had been working, I felt so lucky to be staying down below with the creatures I was swimming over. Mark Erdmann and I were searching for Odontodactylus havanensis burrows (one of the stomatopod (mantis shrimp) species we’re studying). They live in several holes, lined with small stones, and we would see their eyes poking up. If it looked like no one was home, we’d gently insert one end of our marking flags down – sometimes we’d feel a sharp smack as the ‘pod inside hit the stick with his or her raptorial appendage. We found 20 burrows in 2-3 hours of diving time, which we flagged for more detailed mapping tomorrow, so we’re pleased. Pam and Alex also had success in their search for the tiny sand dwelling Nannosquilla, finding both parents, eggs, and larvae all in one burrow (and managing to catch them for further study!). We’re spending the evening getting organized, trying to catch stomatopods in the plankton (so far unsuccessful) and trying to set up the video camera (so far unsuccessful). We’ll keep trying, and hopefully our fearless leader Roy can help us troubleshoot!