The dawn dive was great. In the water by 0600, we were out looking for the nocturnal species of the reef such as squid, octopi, and eels. We were also observing the reef as night changed to day. To me, this felt very much like Easter morning. There was magic in the air (or water that is), there was a special sunrise service, and we were on an Easter egg hunt. Soon, I found myself drifting down in the grooves, inverted, peaking in each tiny hole and crevasse with my dive light. What a difference it makes to really look closely in each and every hole. Each nook was a nighttime home for some little creature, and I soon found that there were barberpole shrimp and graysby groupers just about everywhere. Also, another unexpected find were a number of Diadema (sea urchins). These black spiny creatures help clean the reef of algae by grazing, but were nearly wiped out here in the Keys by disease in the 1980s. Steven Miller, the NURC Center Director, told us to keep our eyes peeled for them, and performing our dawn dive taught us just the skills that we needed to find them. In the end Danny and I spotted at least five of these urchins.

After the dive, we came in, washed up, and had a live interview with Miles O'Brian from CNN using the Polycom video conferencing unit. Communications worked well, and there were a number of very relevant questions related to what NASA is doing at Aquarius, and what we've learned from the experience. Of course, we were all thrilled to share the experience of Aquarius with the cable news viewers of the world and to express all of the valuable lessons that the NOAA - NASA partnership is teaching us about mission operations, crew support and training, and expedition psychology.

Another great treat for the day was a conference with the International Space Station. We all waited eagerly as we watched the ISS orbital ground track on the Internet. As ISS popped over the South Atlantic, the telephone rang, and the whole NEEMO crew enjoyed a 10 minute conversation with Sergei, Valery, and Peggy, who were 250 miles above sea level while we were 47 feet beneath the ocean surface. It was a real pleasure to share the enthusiasm of both our teams, and to discuss all of the similarities between the two missions. We also shared some laughs and discussed some serious topics related to the state of the Space Station and plans for the future. Soon we were saying goodbyes as our time on the Ku-Band antenna came to a close.

We spent the evening performing some coral science off the NE excursion line. This time, we tried working in a group of four. We ended up getting a little less than twice as much done as Jeff and I managed to accomplish on our first effort, but this can mostly be attributed to our close proximity to air fills at Aquarius for most of the EVA, since we didn't have much transit time to the worksite. The lesson learned from today was the importance of efficiency and time management on this type of task. Each crew member needed to have specific tasks and duties without too much overlap, otherwise we ended up getting in each others way. Interestingly, four crewmembers collaborating on a task are not necessarily twice as productive as two. Tomorrow, we'll put a new plan into action at the Pinnacle and test the effectiveness of our lessons today.

Well, now it's time to sign off. We've got just two more dives scheduled for this trip, but plenty of work to do before "splash up" on Tuesday. Time to hit the sack and dream of beautiful fishes.