Contacts: Justin Kenney, NOAA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mimi Cunningham, UNCW 8/6/98
Six "Aquanauts" will live on the ocean floor for the next six days where they will study the condition of reefs in the deeper waters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Living much like space shuttle astronauts, these Aquanauts will work and live in Aquarius--the world's only underwater habitat--located five miles off Key Largo at a depth of 50 feet.
The Aquanauts participating in this inaugural mission of the 1998 research season, which began Tuesday, August 5, include:
"This first mission in the newly refurbished Aquarius will provide information about the condition of U.S. coral reefs in waters deeper than can be routinely reached using surface-based diving techniques," said Steven Miller, associate director of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington's National Undersea Research Program. "It is well known that significant declines have occurred in recent years in shallow coral reef environments in Florida and throughout the Caribbean," Miller explained. "However, deeper coral reefs between 60 and 120 feet remain largely unexplored and their condition is not well documented," he said.
"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."
"This Aquarius mission gives us a unique opportunity to learn about the coral reefs as an indicator of the health of the nations' waters," said Dr. Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence. "For the next week, we will become ocean residents, and explore and communicate the connection between the health of the oceans and our own health."
Funded by NOAA, Aquarius is operated by the UNCW's National Undersea Research Center, one of six such centers jointly operated by NOAA and its partner universities. Aquarius was first deployed in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary from September 1993 to May 1996. Since that time the Aquarius system has been completely refurbished in partnership with the Harris Corporation, Melbourne, Fla., and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Fort Pierce, Fla.
Aquarius makes it possible for aquanaut-scientists to live and work under water continuously during 7- to 10-day missions to study North America's largest living coral reef system. With eight science missions planned for this year, Aquarius is the focal point for NOAA's comprehensive environmental research program aimed at better understanding and preserving endangered coral reef ecosystems in U.S. waters.
Previously, operations were monitored 24 hours a day from a support barge moored above Aquarius. The new Aquarius 2000, however, operates using a stand-alone support buoy that uses telemetry to provide data, audio and video links from Aquarius to shore.
The public may follow this research mission by visiting the Aquarius World Wide Web site at www.uncwil.edu/nurc/aquarius .