Aquanauts explore the last frontier

By Environmental News Network staff

Divers spend up to nine hours underwater

(ENN) -- There are astronauts and then there are aquanauts. The men and women who circle the globe seem to get all the press, but that may change in the coming years as the ocean's reputation as the last great frontier is enhanced.

The Aquarius, the world's only underwater habitat, has been completely refurbished and is now sitting 50 feet below the ocean's surface in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. For its inaugural mission, four scientists and two technicians are spending a week on board the Aquarius to study the deep coral reefs in the Florida Keys.

This expedition, taking place Aug. 3-10, is a follow up to baseline studies that took place at Conch Reef in the Florida Keys in 1994. By living in the underworld, the scientists will be able to collect information about the condition of U.S. coral reefs in waters deeper than can be routinely reached using surface-based diving techniques.

"It is well known that significant declines have occurred in recent years in shallow coral reef environments in Florida and throughout the Caribbean," said Steven Miller, associate director of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington's National Undersea Research Program. "However, deeper coral reefs between 60 and 120 feet remain largely unexplored and their condition is not well documented," he said.

Since 1994, reefs in Florida have undergone coral bleaching twice, the distribution and abundance of coral diseases have increased, and early this year seaweed blooms were observed throughout the Keys. It is against this backdrop, and possible declines in water quality, that scientists will be studying the deep coral reefs of Conch Reef.

By living 50 feet down, divers can extend their daily working time at 100-foot depths from minutes to as many as nine hours, said one of the aquanauts, marine scientist Ellen Prager of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Photographic, video, and visual techniques will be used to determine the distribution and abundance of hard corals, soft corals, sponges, algae, and other organisms at Conch Reef. In addition, fish surveys will be conducted using conventional census techniques. There is a possibility coral spawning will occur toward the end of the mission; if so, data will be collected related to timing, depths, and species.

Aquarius researchers include:

• Dr. Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence
• Billy Causey, superintendent, NOAA's Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
• Dr. Steven Gittings, science director, NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary program
• Dr. Ellen Prager, US Geological Survey

"The timing of this mission is particularly important in this the Year of the Ocean, which is focused on making marine resources a priority," said NOAA's Sanctuary Superintendent Billy Causey. "This mission affords us the opportunity to better understand the impacts to this vital marine environment, how we affect it and it affects us. A better understanding of the health of this environment is critical to the long term protection of the Florida Keys Sanctuary."

Aquarius is administered by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington's National Undersea Research Center, one of six such centers funded by NOAA. National Geographic is filming the expedition.

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