Mission Log: ‘Itinerant Neighbors’ Oct-19-2008 Luis Camilli
I am sure the critters of Conch Reef, Florida must think their itinerant neighbors; the Aquanauts of Aquarius, are a strange lot. Aquanauts always seem to be in a frenzy – darting back and forth, carrying webbed bags stuffed with tubes, tie wraps, valves, weights, notebooks, sample bags, cords, flashlights, syringes, scissors, tape, pliers, wrenches, and god knows what else they might need before their next (inevitable) trip to the wetporch of Aquarius. Sometimes it must look as busy as the air terminal at Miami International. Today was just such a day.
We woke early, just as the first rays of neon aquamarine light spilled through the bow port window. After gobbling down oatmeal and hot cocoa we donned our wetsuits (still wet and slimy from the day before – yuck). We helped each other slip into the straps of our double tanks and headed out to check on the instruments we had placed on the reef the evening before.
During the night, we had formed an impromptu science meeting to discuss the exciting data we saw streaming across our computer screens coming directly and in real time from our suite of chemical sensors. We now wanted to test a slightly new hypothesis about the diel (24-hour) cycle of sponge and seagrass physiology and this would require a bit of “remodeling” and “plumbing” of our hardware scattered around various sites. What does that mean for our friends at Conch Reef? Well I guess, it’s a little like the signs I saw at Miami International Airport, when I flew in to be a part of this mission – our experiments for the time being are “Under Construction.” Fortunately for our fine fish friends, we are only visiting on the reef for 10 days before they get the keys to the Aquarius “condo” and the wetporch back.
Aquanaut Luis Camilli
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