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

Teens4Oceans (T4O) is a coalition of students, scientists, and non-profit organizations whose mission is to increase our understanding of America’s ocean heritage through student-driven research and conservation. Teens4oceans’s goal is to empower our next generation to become impassioned stewards for their oceans through science research, inquiry-based learning, and philanthropic initiatives.

In addition to working with schools around the nation to identify problems and research questions associated with local watersheds and coastal marine ecosystems, T4O helps students gain meaningful experiences in the field to address their research and find solutions to identified problems. The organization also designs, deploys and maintains science nodes, comprised of robotic underwater cameras and data acquisition systems in large marine ecosystems unique to the United States. The goal is to allow young students, and the public, to appreciate the rich diversity of organisms and habitats that make up our waterways and coastal systems.

T4O is excited to work with the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Aquarius Reef Base to deploy Reef Cams on the Undersea Habitat at Key Largo, Florida. Students from Kent Denver School formed a T4O crew and surveyed the Aquarius Habitat and surrounding reef on December 16th and 17th of December 2010. Examining the current structural infrastructure will allow the students to design two camera systems that will hopefully be deployed early in the New Year. The Aquarius Habitat offers a unique opportunity for Teens4oceans, as four key elements exist at the research facility that have limited the deployment of a camera on a deep-water reef: security, high-bandwidth network, power, and regular maintenance visits.

In addition to streaming high-definition video from the structure 24/7 anywhere within the local area network, including at the Eco-Discovery Center in Key West and the Key Largo NOAA facility, Teens4oceans will work with its partners to disseminate the content around the nation. The group will build user-generated content and interpretive materials to divulge the beauty and wonder of America’s only living reef.

For those of you who are following Aquarius and our missions. The November mission was the last for the year. Thanks to all of our aquanauts, visitors, NOAA, UNCW, NASA, the U.S. Navy, supporters, and of course the staff for making it a great mission year.

The staff is now busy winterizing the undersea habitat, doing yearly maintenance, and hopefully taking a little well deserved time off. There is actually quite a lot that needs to be done before the next mission season begins, probably sometime in March or April. Besides, the water gets a little chilly for long hours of diving if you are an aquanaut. One major task ahead this winter is that the large Life Support Buoy that sits over the habitat will be disconnected, towed, and hauled out of the water for some much-needed maintenance, including a new paint job. Gazebo waystations will be hauled out and rennovated. Basically, what can be removed, cleaned and checked will be and the rest will be worked on undersea by divers.

Everyone at the base is also excited by our much-needed, new (used) workboat that has aptly been named the R/V George F. Bond after the Navy Captain who is considered the father of saturation diving. Though we are sure there will be plenty of jokes around about the other famous Bond…..

Over the winter we also hope to redesign our website a bit, so if you have any suggestions, send them in as comments.

There will definitely be a lot going on next year as our mission schedule is already filling up and 2008 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Aquarius program – so stay tuned.

Ellen Prager
Chief Scientist, Aquarius Reef Base