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

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

In some ways, it starts just like a day of training: getting a quick breakfast and then loading our gear onto the boat. But today the tone is very different:  everyone is strangely quiet. This is the anticipated moment; the start of our saturation adventure in Aquarius.  I have a few anticipatory butterflies in my stomach, but I feel positive about my training and ability to do the job.  The seas grow a bit rough on the boat trip out to the site, but unlike almost any other diver, I won’t have to go through boarding the boat in rough seas at the end of my dive.

Once on site, we splash down and go straight to work with Dr. James Lindholm, the Principal Investigator ( or “PI” in science jargon) who watches his team record data on a fish, and then holds an impromptu discussion on a sandy patch of  bottom with gestures and written comments on an underwater slate when the group turns in their data sheets.  When he is satisfied that we are all being consistent, he leaves for shallower water and we go on to collect data, observing three species of fish. Our dive ends about noon, and we enter the Aquarius for the first time as resident aquanauts.

We are given a safety briefing upon entering Aquarius.  The habitat now seems somehow smaller than before, with no wasted space, and no room for clutter.  The walls are an intricate landscape of valves and switches, with emergency breathing equipment and controls spaced strategically throughout their length. Our voices are higher pitched and metallic sounding, possibly product of sound waves moving faster in the high pressure air surrounding our vocal cords. We have a lunch of rehydrated backpack food and a few snacks. The food envelopes are shrunken from the increased pressure, but we are hungry and the hot food tastes, or at least feels good… the taste is a bit bland, also a product of the increased pressure, but not as easy to explain. We transcribe some data from our waterproof datasheets, then go out for more work in the afternoon.

The light is dimming as we go on our afternoon dive, and the long dive time afforded by working out of the Aquarius rewards us with subtle changes most divers don’t get to see. The Creole wrasse are more active, the goliath groupers have moved out of their daytime refuge, and the parrotfish are becoming more scarce, as they begin to seek out a refuge for the night.  The reef is getting ready for night, which is falling as we re-enter the habitat for a shower, dinner, and the evening’s activity.  More transcription of data, dinner, and a steady increase in the number of fish moving outside the viewports, attracted by our lights, yet leery of predators like the two large goliath groupers actively patrolling the space outside the four inch think acrylic ports, eager to inhale a careless fish.

Mark Tohulka
MAST Academy, Aquarius Aquanaut

Training Day 4:

This was our day of orientation with full-face masks that allow us to speak clearly into a microphone in the mask, and hear with a “bone phone,” a speaker that rests against your skull behind your ear, transmitting sound through your skull. Sounds odd, but it works fine, almost like normal hearing. The problem with most full-face masks is that if you lose your air supply, you have to take off the whole mask, and lose your vision to get to a back-up air supply. These masks are different, allowing a pod only to be removed. It’s a great advantage, but as a result, the masks fog a bit and are a little awkward.

We were also shown how to fill our tanks and communicate at the waystation outside Aquarius. When we popped our heads up into the station’s air bubble, I was reminded how odd we sound under increased pressure. Voices sound very nasal and metallic, as the sound waves are transmitted faster through the denser air and reflect off the metal waystation. Just one more reminder that we are in a strange environment.

Training Day 5:

Our last day of training! We started with a science briefing given by Ashley, filling in some details of how we will collect the data on the fish. Next, we discussed the broadcast events and plan what points we want to get across to the audience. I learned that I will do all my work from inside for the broadcasts, so I won’t need to use the full-face mask. In some ways, I was disappointed, but it is also a relief considering yesterday’s difficulties. We then reviewed and initialed a checklist of all the procedures we have been trained in over the past week. The list is long, and includes many skills that a typical scuba diver would never practice, or even think of doing. A final training dive closed the day with a brisk swim around the perimeter of our study area to reinforce our orientation, and some buddy breathing (without masks of course) to practice some more. It has been an exciting week of training, and surpasses anything I had expected in the way of training. This aquanaut stuff is serous business, but the rewards are great!  Splash down on Tuesday!

Mark Tohulka
Mast Academy
Aquarius Aquanaut

Training Day 2:

What could go wrong while working as a saturation diver out of the Aquarius? This question was answered in detail today… getting separated from your dive buddy, running out of air, getting lost, accidentally surfacing, or having an equipment failure. You could even lose your mask. None of these events should ever happen, but we must be prepared for any of them. At the start of the day, two line reels were added to our equipment. We learned how to tie off a line properly and secure it to the bottom to create a path, then were shown how to follow it and pick it up without getting tangled, and how to use a compass underwater. It was much easier in parking lot practice than it was in the water! But after some practice, we all did OK.

Whereas most scuba divers are just taught to surface safely in the event of an emergency, we can’t do that. The nitrogen dissolved in our tissues from our time and depth of submersion would give us a serious case of decompression sickness, “the bends,” which divers fear and which can cripple or even kill a saturation diver. So all our procedures focus on getting back to the Aquarius. It is our shelter, our safety, and our home for the coming mission. We have been told, “the surface is not an option.” So we have to solve problems on the bottom – even without our masks. We practiced isolating and shutting down tanks without our masks, breathing on our regulators as the instructors watched us closely. They see our every expression to make sure we are doing OK. Tomorrow, the work gets tougher!

Training Day 3:

The day started with a discussion of food and clothing. We are given procedures for packing dry clothes and essentials. There’s not much room for extras, and nothing scented or in aerosol form is allowed, since smells are intensified in the hyperbaric environment and aerosol propellants could contaminate our air. Following this briefing, we go to more safety orientation and practice. There is more new equipment to carry: one pocket will carry a metal cylinder containing a marine radio. The other carries an emergency light and strobe, and an inflatable marker to show our location, whether on the surface or on the bottom. The inflatable marker, called a “safety sausage” by divers, is a bright yellow tube of nylon cloth about 6 feet long that we can fasten to one of our lines, fill with air, and let go to the surface. A rescue boat would see an “EMERGENCY” announcement on the tube, and locate us on the bottom at the end of the line. Surfacing accidentally and being unable to return to the Aquarius is a worst-case scenario. If it were to happen, we are to call with our marine radio, inflate the marker, and await the fast rescue boat, which would be dispatched from the watch desk. A quick pick-up would whisk us back to the land base, where we would immediately be placed in the hyperbaric chamber and recompressed to begin an eighteen hour regimen of pressure and oxygen designed to shrink and eliminate the nitrogen bubbles that would already be forming in our bodies (note – this has never happened through the 100 missions at Aquarius and we want to keep it that way with preparation and a focus on safety being the key). We are shown the chamber: hopefully, our only look at it! We practice our skills in the afternoon’s dives. Deploying the safety markers is easy, and with six of us holding reels attached to the bobbing markers, we look like we are flying kites from the ocean bottom, hardly the serious business really at hand. This was welcome break after spending long minutes doing search patterns with the lines and finding the direction to the Aquarius, all with our masks off. Special thanks to our instructors, Mark “Otter” Hulsbeck and Otto Rutten! They are taking great care in training us. The diving day closes with another tank shutdown drill (no masks, of course), and a brief on our performance. We are all doing OK, but any mistake is called to our attention for correction. My biggest problem? Unknowingly moving to the surface when supplying my buddy with air, “buddy breathing” in diver’s slang. It’s trained behavior for normal scuba diving, but absolutely not allowed for saturation diving. I make a mental note to dump air out of my buoyancy compensator the next time to help me stay down. The buoyancy compensator, or “BC” is the inflatable vest worn by divers to allow us to stay level in the water and balance out the weight we carry. Managing the BC is one of a diver’s most important skills, and a critical one for us. More practice tomorrow, with a new mask and a trip to the “underwater air station.”

Mark Tohulka
Mast Academy
Aquanaut Candidate

The first training day is over. My fears of failing the swimming test have been laid aside (I made it!). This included swimming 400 yards in 12 minutes or less, treading water for ten minutes, and swimming 75 feet underwater on one breath. Although this would be slow for a competitive swimmer, it was a challenge for me. We have to have swimming skills adequate for safety, which is the main consideration for all Aquarius policies, procedures, and requirements. The was apparent in the briefing this morning, when we met all of the “people behind the scenes” for the mission: the technicians, support divers, instructors, and other staff who make the Aquarius Reef Base Program what it is: an outstanding, safe, and adaptable platform for coral reef research which is the only one of its kind in the world.

The rest of the day was spent fitting us with our dive gear and doing practice drills on land and underwater. The rig, much like a cave-diver’s setup, includes two 100 cubic foot tanks joined be a special valve which allows us to isolate either tank and use either of two regulators in the event of a failure. On land, it weighs 90 pounds, and doesn’t feel too much lighter underwater. But it has some tremendous features, including the ability to fill the tanks underwater using a special hose on the regulator. We practiced operating the valves to shut down each side independently in case of a failure, and doing other safety drills, such as buddy breathing and mask clearing. As the week goes on, the drills will become more challenging, and more unusual. Check in tomorrow and see how the day went!

Mark Tohulka
Teacher, MAST Academy
Aquanaut Candidate in Training