Amber Diekmann asked: Hi,
I was wondering, if Mr. Houwen is down at the aquarius for a short time period, how can he be down there for a short time if it takes 17 hours to adjust to the different pressures of air?
Amber,
That is a very good question. The 17 hour figure that you mention is the decompression period that Dewey spoke about in the third show only applies to people who have been submerged for longer periods of time. That is why the aquanauts are called “saturation” divers. After an extended period of time, the body’s tissues are saturated with nitrogen and so they have to undergo the decompression treatment.
I was diving within “no-decompression limits” meaning I was diving for only a short period of time, so there is no need for decompression. My “dive” this morning, which consisted of a couple of minute descent to the Aquarius, about 40 minutes in the habitat for the show, and a couple of minute ascent totaled only 53 minutes at a maximum depth of 50 feet. My dive tables, which normal scuba divers use, allow for a maximum of seventy minutes under those conditions. In fact, since I’ve been out of the water now for over 4 hours, I could actually do another dive right now to that depth and be able to stay down for 49 more minutes without having to decompress. I was well within my limits.
Steve Houwen
Alameda High School
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Amber Diekmann asked: Hi This is for Mr. Houwen, How are the red cells affected by being under water?
Amber,
Typically, red blood cells remain largely unaffected by the pressure of diving. Recent research has been quoted though that speaks of Red Cell Rigidity, which describes red blood cells getting ‘harder’ which may cause the slowing of rbc’s passing through the capillaries, and that the increased pressure of Nitrogen can be responsible. The accuracy of this research is highly debated right now, and probably only an issue with very deep diving, far beyond the research depths here.
Steve Houwen
Alameda High School
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Today (Sunday) was very successful! The science team followed a total of 27 fishes throughout the day. We split up the observations pretty evenly among the three species (black grouper, blue parrotfish, and hogfish). Jere and I started out along the Ridgeline to get a few parrotfish and groupers. We swung by our new favorite spot where, for four days straight now, we have seen the aggregation of midnight parrotfish (about 4-5), filefishes (about 4-5), and black groupers (about 2-3). It is quite a sight to see all of these species foraging together on one small cluster of coral. The coral cluster has been different every day but the species makeup of the group stays the same. We are hoping to go check on them one more time tomorrow morning.
On our afternoon dive, we headed out near the Kamper station and headed off to a new section of reef we had not yet explored. Suddenly, I had to blink because there were two small (~1m) bonnethead sharks swimming along the reef. Then, they started attacking one another! Just for a second though, one swam one way and the other in the opposite direction. We tried to follow one, but he was going way too fast for us to catch up. Then, not 10 seconds later, a giant Southern stingray lifted off about 15 meters away from us, and swam along the reef. It was a pretty incredible 45 seconds! That’s one of my favorite things about the ocean, you can swim around all day seeing very cool stuff and then suddenly something even more amazing happens!
I am so happy to be here once again. My last mission was such an incredible experience, I never thought I’d get to go again. I forgot how indescribably comforting it is to lay in my bunk, listen to some tunes, and watch the fish swim by the viewport (AKA the window). There are these three huge Goliath groupers that hang out around the habitat at night; they just lumber past the viewport every once in awhile — peering in on us.
We are decompressing early, begining tomorrow. I’m a little sad to be leaving early, but I must admit I am excited to see the sky!
Ashley Knight
Aquarius Aquanaut
CSUMB
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Hi,
My name is Katrina and I’m from Ada Merritt K-8 Center in Miami,Florida. I was just wandering in case of an emegency what would you guys do and how would the entire crew get to the surface?
Dear Katrina
Hello and great question. In case we had to end a mission due to an emergency, all of the aquanauts would evacuate Aquarius with a mask and breath through a very small scuba bottle (which can be held in one hand). All power would be secured, and valves and doors in Aquarius would be closed, if possible. All of the aquanauts would stage into the emergency gazebo, which is a safe haven right next to the entrance of Aquarius. The gazebo resembles a thimble on four legs and is filled partially with air. Within minutes, an emergency response team would dive down and help bring us safely to the surface. However, because we have been underwater for a long time (considered saturated), all aquanauts would be rushed to our shore facility to begin decompression.
Dewey Smith
Aquarius Aquanaut and Habitat Technician
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Alyssa asks: I would like to know what the variety of discoveries that you’ve found so far in your trip, and if there is any possibility of danger to yourselves or the aqua life while you are observing.
Hello Alyssa,
We have been lucky to be able to work here at Aquarius where there are so many of the fish we are studying, and we are able to watch them for up to 7 hours each day. We have discovered the ecological preferences of these fish. For instance, the Black Grouper is an ambush predator and seeks hiding spots among the reef to wait for unsuspecting prey. The hogfish spends most of its time willowing in the sand, taking large mouthfuls of sand and filtering it through its gills. The Blue Parrotfish travel actively over the reef and sand scraping the coral and helping to turn it into sand.
The last few day the visibility has bee poor. Normally we can see several hundred feet but recently the currents have stirred up a lot of debris in the water column reducing the distance we can see to only 50 to 60 feet. One of the biggest dangers to us as saturation divers is losing our way and not being able to find our way back to the habitat for air. To protect ourselves against this we us reels, like fishing reels, which we use to mark the direction we have come, that way when we need to turn around we can just follow the line back home. When the visibility is bad we have to stay extra close to our buddy and seeing the line disappear into the distance makes me appreciate all the training we received prior to becoming aquanauts.
Sometimes we will wrap our lines around the reef to keep from dragging and harming corals. When doing this Matt and I have discovered fire coral. This special coral has developed a unique defence. To protect itself from other creatures, including scientists, the coral has stinging cells that cause your skin to feel like it is burning. This sensation only lasts a little while but you are sure to recognize and avoid this coral next time.
While diving and collecting data we are very careful not to harm the reef. This is a special place and very beautiful, in order to keep it that way we only observe, or watch the fish and other creatures. This ensures that Conch Reef will remain healthy and unspoiled. It is these characteristics which brough here to conduct research in the first place.
Thanks for your question
Jeremiah Brantner
Aquarius Aquanaut
Cal State University Monterey Bay
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