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

Mission Day 4

Today we got out early and began another day of data collection. I was tasked primarily with photography so that we could have some photo and video evidence of the project. The water was better, still not prime, but everything is relative. When you’ve been diving the conditions we have, today was not bad. Honestly, getting off the boat and being on the boat are not too bad, if you are not prone to sea-sickness, it’s getting back on after a dive that sometimes takes some doing. Thanks to our captain, Tim, we get our cameras, clipboards and fins on the boat and then time the waves so that we get on the ladder in the trough (bottom) and ride the wave up. You can get a little beat up while you are handing your fins up, so we are careful.

In our four dives today we tracked 8 fish. The saturation team got 17! Thirteen were Grouper. Apparently they hit the mother lode on what is called the S4 line. Since the saturation team has been so successful, they were going to run out of data collection sheets, so when the surface team sent more materials down to Aquarius today, we included more of the waterproof data collection sheets that we are using to track our fish.

Steve Houwen

Alameda High School

Surface Science Support

It was quite a day at Aquarius today. Sure, it started the same for the saturation team, buddy teams out at 6:45 and 7:00 as usual, but by 9:30 they were staging back in to Aquarius to prepare for the first live video show. Before that, NURC’s tech guru Dominic Landucci was hard at work along with the two habitat techs Dewey and Jim as they ran the equipment through sound checks, getting levels set. After a few last minute fixes, we were ready to go. As is the case for most live events, it didn’t go exactly as planned, but the team did a good job of making it work. There was a tour of the habitat, video of training week and the first mission day, a visit by Dr. James Lindholm, the Principal Investigator who talked about the mission and its purposes. I was topside at the shore base for my segments, one of which was unplanned. Dominic did a great job producing the show, cutting video in and out, switching camera shots, and getting us all through it. If you didn’t catch this morning’s show, log on to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aquarius-undersea-habitat to see it archived. In fact, if you want to participate by asking questions on the next show, you can sign up on ustream , and then ask questions via instant messaging. The next show is on Saturday, 10:30 am EST.

After the show, I changed quickly and boarded the Sabina, our support boat for a trip out to join Dr. Lindholm for an afternoon of fish tracking. The whole crew here is amazing, nothing would happen without them. When we got out past the reef, the 2 to 4 foot seas forecast were nowhere in sight. It was still the 4 to 6+ that have been around a few days. As we closed with the RV Research Diver, the boat we stage from, I got my fins and mask on and jumped in for a quick swim over. I got aboard and got into my dive gear, which I had loaded first thing this morning and we were in the water for our first of three research dives. We got data on a few fish today, but we’d hoped for more. Funny thing about field research – your subjects don’t always show up on demand. When we track fish, we are looking for several things, are they actively swimming, are the “station keeping,” or hanging out in a certain location, are they feeding, and if so, what type of feeding? We also log the type of habitat – is it over the hard bottom, over coral rubble or over the reef itself, in the water column, etc. This is important because it will give us data, which we can logically extrapolate to other species and help inform us about the general ecological interaction of fish with their habitat. It is important that when deciding where to place Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) we have proper habitat makeup to support populations of fish. While we were only able to track four fish today, the saturation team tracked twenty. Should I say it again? Okay – this is why we need to be able to have a place like Aquarius to do research from, the difference in the volume of collected data is staggering.

On our dives today, we did get to see more interesting things, like a school of 12 to 15 or so barracuda. I’ve never seen more than two at a time before. I saw a large cowfish and a scrawled filefish. One of the Parrotfish that we tracked had a remora attached, that was new. I saw a coronet fish with a lot of blue coloration. While gathering data on a Black Grouper, I looked down and saw a trumpetfish trying to act like the gorgonian he was hanging out next to. In the mouth of a large sponge, James noticed coral growing – that was amazing to me. Every time I dive I see new things. Perhaps that is what drives my love for the oceans. There are things that most people never get to see or to appreciate. As I put in my profile, one of the things that has always intrigued me is the diversity of life I see. Unfortunately, that diversity is on a hard decline to put it mildly. We cannot afford to lose this, but that’s another blog. Tomorrow we head back out for four science dives. I’m praying for flatter seas – you know the 2 to 4’s they keep promising would be nice.

Ocean Ed Item of the Day:

As noted, today I saw a Scrawled Filefish. They are cool. One of the interesting things to me about this fish is that although they have a large caudal fin, they rarely use it in swimming. Instead, they use other fins to do it. See if you can find out which ones they use and then figure out why this method of movement is effective for their needs.

Stephen Houwen

Teacher, Alameda High School

Science Surface Support

Thanks for all the great Ask an Aquanaut questions this mission.  Watch our broadcasts at 10:30am on Saturday and next Tuesday and aquanaut Mark Tohulka and lead scientist Dr. James Lindholm may answer your question live.  The shows will also be archived for later viewing.  Click on Aquarius Live on the web site to go to the links for viewing the broadcasts.

Dr. Ellen Prager

Chief Scientist, Aquarius Reef Base

Amber Layman asks: This question is for Ashley. Do you get to touch or feed the fish that swim by? Are you going to help teach any lessons? And is it cold or warm down there?

Hi Amber!

No, the fish don’t reall y like us to touch them so we don’t try. They are too fast anyway, we could never catch one. We don’t feed them either, but we are watching how they eat out on the reef. The black groupers suck up other fishes, the blue parrotfish scrape the reef to get the algae (plants) from the coral, and the hogfish rummage around in the sand for worms and other tasty treats. We spend most of our time out watching them eat, so we are learning a lot about how they do it!

I’m not exactly teaching any lessons, but I will be outside SCUBA diving for all of the broadcasts. I will be showing you around the habitat and introducing you to some of the fishes that hang out around here.

The water is not very cold – about 78 degrees fahrenheit. That’s nice and warm for those of us from California (we’re used to about 55 degrees!). It can get a little cold inside the habitat, which is why I am usually wearing a hat and socks and a thick sweatshirt.

Ashley Knight
Graduate Student, California State University, Monterey

Aquanaut

The mission has begun! Today Ashley, Jere, Matt and Teacher Under the Sea Mark began their saturation. Seas were a bit rough, but everyone got in just fine. James and I assisted the Aquanauts in donning their gear and then helped them off. As they descended to Aquarius’ Wet porch area, we quickly got in our gear, I grabbed my camera, and we dropped down to join them. It was a nervous but excited group of Aquanauts we sent off the boat, but once under the waves, everyone felt more at ease. I know that seems strange to most, but we are frequently more comfortable under the water than riding on top of it, especially today.

After a brief meeting and photo op at Aquarius, the entire group, all seven of us, swam out to collect data. In order to try to reduce collector bias, three different groups collected the data on the same fish at the same time, and then Dr. Lindholm compared data from each group to get everyone on the same page. After that, we headed our different ways. The surface team returned to the boat for a surface interval of about 45 minutes or so before returning for another session. The saturation team simply continued their research, checking in every 2 hours and doing a midday storage interval. We plan to dive during that storage time each day so that data collection can continue throughout. Therein lies the reason saturation diving is so important. Today the surface team did three dives of 48 minutes, 53 minutes, and 48 minutes for a total of 2:29. The saturation team was able today, with a late start, to get in about 5 hours of data collection. That’s at least a two and a half our edge in available research time in just the first day. And while they are in a nice, calm environment, we had to return to the surface in 4 to 6 foot seas for our surface intervals.

We did get to see some cool things during the day, such as a grouper feeding, a large turtle, a loggerhead turtle we believe, a green moray in a cleaning station, a spotted moray, and more. Don’t forget the live broadcasts on Thursday, Saturday, and next Tuesday.

Ocean Ed Item for the Day:

The waves I’ve been speaking of are a product of surface winds. These winds are being caused by a high pressure system moving in from the northwest and the remnant low of Hurricane Paloma off Cuba. Wind based waves are a product of how far the wind blows (fetch), how long the winds blow (duration), how hard the winds blow (intensity) and the water depth. In addition the currents are beginning to pick up. What do you think is associated with the increase in currents (hint: it has nothing to do with wind).

Stephen Houwen
Alameda High School
Alternate Aquanaut, Surface Science Support