Meet the ‘Aquanauts’ Who Research Coral Reefs in World’s Only Underwater Laboratory
- Posted on September 24, 2011 at 12:48pm by
Liz Klimas
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For the last 10 days, marine scientists and technicians, otherwise known as aquanauts, have been living almost 50 feet under water while they research ways to protect and restore the coral reef off of Key Largo in Florida.
Aquarius before it was deployed in 1993. (Photo: NOAA)
The underwater lab, which called “Aquarius” but also goes by America’s “inner space” station,” is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and can hold up to six researchers at a time. The lab has almost all the comforts of home — toilet, microwave, refrigerator, air conditioner — so aquanauts can remain submerged for an extended length of time, according to LiveScience:
Drinking water is brought down in jugs, while food, books, clothing, electronics such as Hay’s iPad, and other items come in pressurized containers “like your grandmother’s pressure cooker,” [marine ecologist Mark Hay of the Georgia Institute of Technology] explained.
“If we seal a container — say, a jar — on the surface to keep out the water, dive it into Aquarius and try to open it, we can’t because the pressure pushing it closed is too great,” he explained. “However, if we put it in a pressure cooker, seal it shut, pressurize it to the equivalent of 50 feet deep and bring it into the habitat, then it opens easily.”
In terms of dining, “the staple is freeze-dried camping food,” Hay explained, “Tastes fine, but very high-cholesterol and very high-sodium.” This gets microwaved or mixed with hot water. “We also get some fresh fruit, and some of the staff’s wives and girlfriends occasionally cook real food and send it down.”
Watch this quick tour of Aquarius:
Researchers go in and out through a hole in the bottom of the cabin floor. To prevent water from flooding the school bus-size lab, the cabin is pressurized. Before returning to the surface, aquanauts spend 17 hours in the decompression chamber. After such a length of time breathing gas that is causing their bodies to absorb nitrogen, rising to the surface too quickly could cause “the bends,” painful and potentially harmful bubbles.
Interior layout of Aquarius. (Image: NOAA)
During this most recent mission, scientists installed 32 cages over the reef and enclosed specific types of aquatic species inside. What they will monitor is which species best control seaweed; seaweed can cause damage to coral reefs.
The next research crew to visit the lab in October with be a team of NASA and international scientists. The NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 15 will descend to Aquarius for a 13-day mission that will be the first to simulate a team landing on an asteroid. According to the release, the team will take advantage of weightlessness underwater to learn how to anchor a vessel to the surface of an asteroid, how to move around it and the best data collection techniques.
Interested in seeing live video from missions under the sea? Check out the feeds here.
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Bernice Durdan-Rowland
Posted on September 26, 2011 at 7:57pmI have been able to view my nephew down under from a secured website – fantastic!!!!!! He has been down on several other occasions. Glad this venture was told about on The Blaze, they do need the publicity – it can be very dangerous……
Report Post »genoanv
Posted on September 25, 2011 at 12:21amI was one of the second group of scientists that spent two weeks on the bottom six miles off the west coast of Puerto Rico in “La Chalupa,” which is now the bed and breakfast referred to above by Mandors. It was an unforgettable experience, but one I wasn’t in a big hurry to repeat…
Report Post »eramthgin
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:41pmWe had “sea lab” in the late 60‘s or early 70’s its about time we got back to it. Anyone notice there is no bathroom on the diagram.
Report Post »BeTheSolution
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 10:02pmbottom left at the foot of the bunk, the unlabled block is probably the head.
Report Post »Hisemiester
Posted on September 25, 2011 at 3:11pmIts called an outside privy. Easier to wash your bum after. Ha. No need for paper either. economically sound. Feed the fish at the same time. Ha. Have to be careful cause it floats. Ha.
Report Post »Cynic-clinic
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:38pmSomething is wrong here. AL GORE told us years ago that all the coral reefs had been destroyed by man-made global warming so, what’s to study???? I’m confused !
Report Post »Roxtar1968
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 8:49pmTo spend even just a week in this habitat would be a dream come true for my me and my wife. We are volunteer divers at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and began our first day of training today! I plan on going back to school at the ripe old age of 45 and getting my degree in marine biology, then landing an aquarist position at one of the aquariums across the U.S.. I say screw the doom sayers and go out and follow your dreams! Aquarist start at about $28,000 a year, so for me this isn’t about the money! It’s about doing what you love!
Report Post »BeTheSolution
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 6:42pmI’m jealous. to be paid to go underwater and study the reefs. I don’t care if it means living in a tin can with BO and no elbow room. I am fascinated by Cnidaria.
Report Post »NuffSaid
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 7:29pmBO: Body Odor or Barrack Obama? How dedicated are you really?
Just kidding. Point taken.
Report Post »BeTheSolution
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 10:00pmBody odor is bad I don’t know if you could convince me to get in a tin can with his majesty Obama, I mean how is he going to fit Air Force One in there to get him from one end to the other?
Besides with him there anything he did would be detrimental to whatever we were actually trying to accomplish. Some one tell Obama no scuba diving on the reefs for him I like them I don’t want his mere presence killing them.
Report Post »b.mclane
Posted on September 25, 2011 at 12:32pmCan mankind, chemicals, silt runoff, and over fishing hurt coral reefs? Absolutely. But don’t forget a coral reef is made up of trillions of tiny animals; each with a life span. A reef has a life span too. They are quite capable of starting, developing and dying all on their own. Living in Hawaii I could see a reef grow past its depth and made itself vulnerable to the sun’s rays. Bleaching itself out and died. Sometimes reefs are over run by coral eating starfish. Hundreds can break a reef down to nothing. If a virus kills off the local cleaner fish who tidy up both fish and coral , fungi can cover a reef in a heartbeat by smothering it. If natural forces push the sea floor up or collapse it the water temperatures can change. Killing it. Mother Nature gives each living thing an expiration date. Mankind cannot control this. The really good news is even in the deadest areas with a bit of help reefs can grow back fast. Grow back, yes, but not forever.
Report Post »Bill Rowland
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 6:20pmThis, to me would be the ultimate adventure. Being able to watch ocean life in its habitat.
Wish I could spend even a few days in the lab.
I’m sure now that it is common knowledge and Oumbler has heard about it he will cancel the project.
OMG – Psalm 109:8
Report Post »wampanoag
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 3:49pmBetter to spend money on researchingmaintaining our oceans which provides us with food and recreation, then wasting it on trips to the moon, mars, and that ridiculous International Space Station which is good for absolutly nothing.
Report Post »Wringeaux
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 2:24pmWhy does the reef need protecting ? Is man interfering with the NATURAL course of nature…AGAIN ???
Report Post »SacredHonor1776
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 2:51pmYou know nothing about the sea right?
Report Post »Jenny Lind
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 3:00pmOh, yeah, we did. We made it an international garbage dump for decades. Slowly people woke up when beautifull reefs started dying from chemicals, and fisheries were almost destroyed by overfishing. Some countries still do not give a rip, but we have tried to help restore and preserve this incredible human RESOURSE, so we all get to eat less cholestrol, more fish. There is a huge difference between being good stewards, and insane tree huggers who really don’t like the human race very much. I am not afraid to stand before God and admit I love beef and chicken and fish. I also want to help care for this second greatest creation of God. (the earth) He still says we are, there are some I worry about. (just being a bit ironic).
Report Post »floridakeysmike
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 3:08pmC’mon, wringeaux… the food chain for MOST of the world begins on the tropical reefs. and by trying to save them, we aren’t interfering in the natural progression of things–we are trying to counter the damage that we have been inflicting for years. you don’t have to be an environmental whacko to be good to the planet that sustains us!
Report Post »Wilkins
Posted on September 25, 2011 at 3:12pmGod gave us dominion over His creation. I believe the intention was that that involves stewardship as well as being able to make use of it.
If you give your child their first bike, car, house, pay for their year at college, whatever, you don’t want them to go wild and wreck / waste the gift, you want them to value and appreciate it.
Just raping and pillaging everything He created probably isn’t what He had in mind for the planet when he left us in charge.
Report Post »Mandors
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 2:23pmThey have actually turned one of the old labs into a bed and breakfast. It’s in the Keys close to this lab.
Report Post »Cat
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 1:46pmActually, this is not the first.
A small firm in Florida, ’Submersible Systems Technology, Inc. in the early 70’s built one man dry subs.
Jacques Cousteau used them in his research around the world.
The Baththyscape Trieste in the late 50’s was considered a submarine as well, but it was really a lab.
There are others around the world.
Being a lover of the sea (topside) this would be quite an experience.
JENNY LIND beat me to it …
Report Post »Jenny Lind
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 1:31pmWOW, love the ocean, grew up close, hate that we used it as a garbage dump.Very glad someone (or ones) are trying to help reefs. God has made us stweards of the earth, and while it is for our use, we got pretty bad at trashing it. Before there were tree huggers (nut jobs that believe earth first, people second, which is the opposite of God,s plan,) we were teaching our kids the stewardship by cleaning up trash every time we went hiking and camping. They got a penny apiece for trash in state parks. Then, they got candy money, today after a weekend of “immigrants” they would be freaking millionare’s.
Report Post »Wringeaux
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 2:26pmTWO THUMBS UP !! from wringeaux
Report Post »diablosho
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 1:10pmI’ve always had dreams about living under the sea, and always fascinated with the ocean. It does concern me that (what are most likely) liberals are at the forefront of this adventure, but eh…I can stomach a liberal’s company for a little while to explore the ocean I suppose! THAT would be an unforgetable adventure of a lifetime! Really cool!
Report Post »scuba13
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 3:28pmI go scuba diving all the time and i’m not a liberal.
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 1:07pmHow am I to believe the US Navy doesn’t have underwater laboratories (submarines) How can this truely be the worlds only underwater laboratory?
Report Post »Jenny Lind
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 1:34pmYou are kidding me, right? Of course they do, Scripps, slightly above San Diego, works with the Navy. Not a well kept secret, although where they are probably is.
Report Post »Mandors
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 2:21pmThey do. The Office of Naval Research has projects that makes DARPA look like a Jiffy Lube.
Report Post »shirelover
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 4:08pm“they can neither confirm nor deny that ONL is activly working in the San Diego area”
“they can neither confirm nor deny that Scripts is actively working in the San Diego area”
hmmmmmm can’t go into detail, lets just say that there’s a reason more Navy pilots have been astronauts than any other branch
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