We woke this morning, refreshed, excited and feeling a bit congratulatory after spending out first 24 hours underwater! 7:00 am up and out of our bunks. A quick brush of teeth and cup of coffee then time to get ready for our first dive of the day.

We are going to continue our work on the NE end of the reef today. Yesterday, Billy and Cathy didn't have enough time to finish their arduous benthic survey transects, so their lines are still out. James and I still need a lot of samples from that area as well, so we all head out from the wet porch for a scheduled four hour dive at 60 feet. If we were on recreational dive tables we would have less than one fourth that amount of time. Not even enough to set the transect lines!

Beautiful conditions again see us out to the NE Waystation, where we check in and top off our tanks with the remote air fill system. We left Aquarius with full tanks, but it's a steady 15 minute swim out to the work area, so we top everything off before we begin our work.

James and I move off toward the wall and then use our reels to lay a line to the north. This allows us to move away from the transit lines but still be able to safely find our way back. Billy and Cathy are finishing their work to the south of us along the same wall.

So far, the benthic team has put out four 25 meter transect lines. The focus of their work involves assessing benthic (bottom) cover and condition. Every 25 cm along the line, they will identify the makeup of the bottom directly under their line. After four transects this provides 400 data points to help describe the makeup of the reef area here at Conch Reef. Along two of the lines they are also conducting a detailed assessment of all corals over 4 cm diameter. The coral assessment describes the size and condition the coral and any diseases present.

James is working with me as part of the "fish team." His work involves a stationery observation of a 20 square meter plot. He's studying the social foraging, or feeding, behavior of fish during 20 minute periods. He's comparing this information from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary to other data collected in Bonaire and Mauritius. The interesting feeding strategies and behaviors may provide clues related to fish diversity and/or benthic cover and composition.

My work involves two different methods of fish censusing - a stationery method and a roving method. The stationery method involves sitting still in the middle of an imaginary 15 m diameter cylinder and noting every species of fish that enters the cylinder during a five minute period. Then, following the five minute period, each species on the list is counted and sized to minimum, maximum, and mean sizes. These data are collected using the methods developed by Dr. Jim Bohnsack and will be compared to the huge data set he has been collecting in the Keys since the early 1980s.

The other method I'm using is part of the REEF survey method used by volunteers around the world. This involves moving slowly about the reef and recording every species found. Searching is a big part of the method. I limit my survey time to 20 minutes, then assign each species on my list an abundance category. These aren't exact counts, but a relative scale of abundance - single, 2-10, 11-100 or more than 100. This information will be compared to data that is already part of the REEF database. With over 35,000 surveys, this is considered the largest assemblage of fish sighting information in the world and is publicly accessible via the REFF website for scientists, managers and the general public.

At the same time we Aquanauts are staying under, another group of mission divers are making daily treks from shore to survey fish using rebreathers. This cutting edge technology let's divers stay down extended times at deeper depths, all without creating any exhaust bubbles. The rebreather divers are conducting the same types of surveys that I'm conducting. At mission's end we will compare data collected by aquanauts to that collected by rebreather divers to determine what, if any, effect the bubbles from scuba gear have on the fish census data we're gathering. This will help answer a few big questions on completeness of scuba generated data. We're all excited to see how the data compare.

We work hard during our morning session and meet back at Aquarius at noon. Seeing the habitat appear in the distance following a four hour dive is akin to walking over a mountain ridge and seeing the campsite after a long hike. Home sweet home! Lunch is downed quickly along with a lot of water (the air in the tanks is dry and tends to dehydrate you after long dive times), then it's straight to the data. Everyone gets busy transcribing and transferring data for safekeeping and analysis. The four hour surface interval goes by quickly. We head back out at 4:00 pm for another 3 hours of work.

Meeting back at the end of the day, we are all excited to hear what the others have seen. We may all be working together out on the reef, but it's still difficult to communicate our observations while we're diving. Billy and Cathy are excited about their dive. "Lot's of new recruitment," Billy spurts out. " New Agaricia (lettuce corals) are everywhere." Billy is seeing about 50-60 corals in a 25 meter transect. Cathy is also excited about her transect data. There are a lot of data points that show overgrowth of previously dead corals. Lots of algae under her data points. Live coral cover doesn't seem high here, but it's still too early to tell anything before the data are complete. Another exciting note is the low incidence of coral disease observed so far. Only one example of yellowband disease on a cavernous star coral. This is good news considering the amount of coral bleaching and blackband disease that has devastated Caribbean and Florida corals over the last few years.

James is excited about his fish behavior data too. It looks like there is higher diversity in his data here than any of the other sites he's visited. More than 25 fish species in a 20 minute survey. Bonaire is considered the Caribbean epicenter of diversity and he's getting more fish in his plots here! He's also seeing a few interesting bouts of shadow hunting with trumpetfish and angelfish. The trumpetfish shadow the angels, swimming right beside them, then take advantage of angelfish "scraps" that are stirred up during foraging stops.

My data is also exciting. On my first morning roving survey I saw a Red Cornetfish. Only one other record of this fish exists in the database of over 34,000 surveys! It's about 20 inches long and looks much like a trumpetfish, but with the addition of a long filamentous whip on the end of its tail. Somewhat shy, it lets me get within 6 feet before moving off over the edge of the wall. I'm very excited. Then another rare sighting, a yellowbelly hamlet, common in other areas of the Caribbean , but only reported on one other expert survey from the Keys! At days end I've completed 8 roving and 8 stationery surveys and documented 80 species so far, including two new species for Conch reef. I'm excited to see what we'll come up with by week's end.

We gather around the table at dinner, talking about what we've seen during the day and then reflecting on the distance of things topside, feeling much like astronauts separated from mother earth during a time of need. We watch the fish swim by the main view port, going about their normal fishy duties. We think about the work we are here to do and how much we believe in our jobs. Mostly, we think about the ones we love and know that to give in to disruption is to let terrorism win. So we keep working and maintain a positive attitude and know that it's not just what we do that matters, but how we do it. From 50 feet below the ocean's surface, we hold our heads high, keep the enthusiasm, and stay on track. And hope the world above is doing the same.