Today is August the 18th, 2003, and the 8th day of the mission. Most of the scientific gear was picked up by the surface crew today and all that is left to do is conduct a few site surveys and odds and ends. These eight days have been the fastest days; I can't believe how quickly they have flown by! Tomorrow will be the last day of diving for both the scientists and the technicians. At about 1600 hours tomorrow (4:00 pm) we start our long decompression to the surface. We will complete decompression at about 0800 hours on Wednesday. After which, we will get to see sunlight for the first time in 10 days. It sure will feel good, but I will miss the Aquarius habitat.

While I was cleaning some oxygen piping, four Smooth Trunkfish (Lactophrys quadricornis) came up to me to see if I was knocking any food off - an easy meal for them. The trunk fish ranged in sizes from 3 inches long to about a foot long. This is an odd looking fish and I am sure that they were thinking the same of me. Think about a triangle blown up and stretched out, add a mouth, two eyes, and some fins and you have a trunk fish. Oh, I almost forgot, color it black with small white dots over its entire body. They were friendly and stayed around watching me for quite some time. The smallest one was the most curious of the bunch and had no fear at all; he tried to see if my gloves were food! Not to worry, their, mouths are small and circular and I'm not even sure if they have teeth. Go to your public library or get on the webpage: http://www.seasky.org/reeflife/sea2h1.html and look up a picture of this fish. You will be glad you did!

Another resident of the sand flats adjacent to Aquarius is the spotted goat fish (Pseudupeneus maculatus). This fish is about 8-10 inches long and has two moving feelers or barbels to dig in the sand for small critters. It makes a cloud of sand dust in front of him like the cartoon character from peanuts "Pig Pen." It's quite the sight to see. The goat fish usually travel in small groups and look very strange moving along the bottom. Check out their picture at: http://core.ecu.edu/biol/nortons/NCFishes/BonyFish/Mullidae/SpottedGoatfish/SpottedGoatfish.html

More to come tomorrow.