We are wrapping up the second day of our saturation mission, and have just turned in our dive log for tomorrow to the Aquarius surface support team. So far we are completing our research objectives, and having a great time. You never quite dry out, but then you don't really need to dry out with the ocean right outside your door! We are even starting to settle into our new home - although it is still a surprise to see squid out your bedroom window.

My dive buddy Alex and I spent the morning testing a piece of equipment called a polarimeter that is used to measure polarized light in the water column. The actual data collection will occur tomorrow with the surface team. After a short break inside, we returned to hunt for stomatopods (mantis shrimp). Four different species live in the sandy bottom surrounding the habitat. We collected specimens of three of the species. The fourth species is quite large - up to about a foot in length. We set up a video camera and infrared lights in front of a burrow of one of these large stomatopods, to watch the animal's behavior at night. The camera is linked to a video monitor in the habitat. On the video monitor a few minutes ago, we saw the stomatopod spear a fish. Not a bad dinner!

A highlight so far has been searching for stomatopod larvae at night. After about 9pm, if you head out with your dive light and shine it into the water column, you attract all kinds of interesting critters. It looks like a cross between a snowstorm and the night sky on a really clear night. If you turn your dive light off, you see beautiful bioluminescence glittering in the water, and when our lights are aimed down you see sting rays four feet wide. Looking forward to seeing the surface team tomorrow…