Follow up from Teens4Oceans visit to Aquarius
Mission: Teens4Oceans
Posted by: Aaron Alexander | Write a comment!
On the 16th and 17th of December, 2010, a group of Teens4Oceans’ students from Kent Denver School made a trip down to the Florida Keys to perform an underwater camera placement survey at the Aquarius Reef Base. Teens4oceans is partnering with the Aquarius Reef Base, to enable school children and the general public to experience the amazing underwater world. Teens4oceans is expanding its Large Marine Ecosystem Project, and the Southeast Atlantic Shelf is biologically well represented off the waters of Key Largo.
After flying from Colorado, the students prepared for their boat ride, and they were very excited, as this was the group’s deepest open water dive adventure. Once in the water they were amazed by the size and structure of The Habitat. After taking a few minutes to explore, they began separating into teams to survey the structure and the adjacent reef in order to find the best place for the cameras.
Each group was assigned 100-foot transects to survey, and they busily explored for a perfect location for their equipment. After marking several areas of interest and exploring the Reef Base a bit more the group resurfaced. All the divers were amazed by the abundance of marine life around the base and were convinced that this was the ideal area for their next Teens4Oceans’ underwater camera system.
After their return to Colorado, they began working on the design of the housings. Working with Wild Goose Engineering in Boulder, Colorado, they even saw the glass camera domes being blown into shape. The group is constantly improving the mechanics and design of their camera systems, and they are excited and anxious for their return trip to the reef base to install the camera