NOAA's Aquarius Marks 20 years of Service to NOAA and the Nation
This story entered on 10th Sep, 2007 01:21:11 PM PST

NOAA’s Aquarius, the planet’s only undersea science laboratory, is marking 20 years of service to NOAA and the Nation this year with a schedule that includes scientific and education missions focused on coral reefs and associated habitat. There are three coral reef research missions including: The Role of Sponges in Nitrogen Cycling and Total Respiration in Coral-Reef Ecosystems and New Technology for Dissolved Nutrient Detection (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and NOAA); Preliminary work for Coral Restoration and Resilience Experiments (NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program); and If Reefs Could Talk, the monitoring of reef communities with live education and outreach events (NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries Program).

Aquarius events also include two Next Generation Saturation Development Missions as well as Development of Plans for a Joint Mobile Saturation System able to dive on any shelf in the nation (Navy, University of North Carolina, and NOAA).

In addition, Project SeaCAMEL is scheduled for November with live interactive teaching and education events from the Aquarius Reef Base (Living Oceans Foundation, Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary, and NOAA).

Aquarius is owned by NOAA and operated by the NOAA Undersea Research Program's (NURP) Undersea Research Center at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. To learn more about each of these missions and to watch the action live, visit: http://www.uncw.edu/aquarius/. A new feature allows you to take a “Google Earth” virtual dive to the Aquarius Reef Base, visit: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/diving/aquarius/aquarius.html

Contact information
Name: Andy Shepard
Tel: (910) 962-2446
sheparda@uncw.edu