Friday, September 07, 2001

Key Largo, FL -- From September 11 to 19, the seafloor off Key Largo, Florida will gain six new residents as the latest mission of the nation's innerspace station, Aquarius, begins. Aquarius is an underwater laboratory where scientists live and work on the seafloor for extended periods using a special technique called saturation diving. Aquarius is located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, 60 feet underwater, and 3.5 miles offshore. Owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW), Aquarius is the only undersea research platform of its kind in the world.

The nine-day mission is a partnership program involving NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP), the Office of Ocean Exploration, and UNCW's National Undersea Research Center (NURC). The mission combines training, fieldwork -- using multiple diving technologies -- and several educational activities. Staff from three different sanctuary field offices will work on five research projects, including, coral reef assessment and monitoring, fish census and behavior studies, a deep reef crinoid survey, and a fish tagging project. At the same time, unique educational experiences such as live links between topside audiences and Aquarius aquanauts will highlight mission activities.

A primary goal of the mission is to evaluate how different dive technologies affect reef fish censuses. For this project, aquanauts and topside divers will conduct fish censuses at multiple times and locations, using at least two survey techniques and advanced diving equipment including closed circuit rebreathers. The rebreathers allow divers extended bottom times over conventional scuba diving techniques, and they are additionally advantageous because they do not produce bubbles that are typical of routine scuba diving. The absence of bubbles means that the rebreather divers maintain a stealthy presence underwater so they can better observe and count fish. The aquanaut survey team is lead by Laddie Akins, executive director of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF).

Two projects focus on coral reef monitoring. In the first project, led by Cathy Sakas from Grays Reef National Marine Sanctuary, aquanauts will measure the size and condition of corals at several locations and depths collecting data to compare with similar studies of deep reef habitats around the Aquarius site that were started in 1994. The second project, led by Billy Causey, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, will document the presence or absence of crinoids at the Aquarius site. Crinoids, more commonly known as sea lilies or feather stars, are not common in the Keys and there is reason to believe that their numbers have declined dramatically in recent years, a response possibly related to the general decline of coral reefs in the Keys.

Another project involves observations of reef fish behavior, led by Dr. James Lindholm, science coordinator for Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. This project requires extensive bottom time that is not possible to achieve in deeper water using conventional scuba diving. Results will be compared to previous work conducted in Bonaire (southern Caribbean) and Mauritius (Indian Ocean).

Finally, the aquanauts will attempt to tag a large number of snappers, groupers, and other reef fish using techniques designed to minimize harm to the fish. Aquarius is located in a special Marine Protected Area devoted to coral reef research where no fishing is allowed. There is great interest in learning about the movement of fish inside and outside marine protected areas. Using Aquarius, the fish-tagging aquanauts, led by onboard UNCW habitat technician Jay Styron, will have an unprecedented opportunity to tag and release a large number of fish during the mission. Posters are printed that will be distributed throughout the community to help alert fishers to the tagging program.

Stephania Bolden, research scientist (NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service - Miami/St. Petersburg) and Karen Burns, fisheries biology program manager (Center for Fisheries Enhancement, Mote Marine Laboratory) helped develop the tagging program and are directly involved in all aspects of the program. Fish tags are imprinted with unique numbers as well as Mote Marine Laboratory's toll-free fish tag recapture telephone number. All tags reported will become part of Mote's Reef Fish Tagging Program database. Education and outreach activities will also play a large role in the mission. There are several events scheduled, including a live link from inside Aquarius to the Orlando Science Center and two live web-casts on September 17. As in previous missions, expedition journals and pictures will be posted on the web site, and the web cameras will be active.

Detailed information on Aquarius, this mission, and other NURC/UNCW projects is available at:

www.uncwil.edu/nurc/aquarius, or by contacting: Dr. Steven Miller, NURC/UNCW, Center Director: millers@uncwil.edu, 305-451-0233,or Mark Ward, NURC Public Affairs: markeward@aol.com, 407-975-6569.

For more information about this mission and the NMSP, contact Mitchell Tartt of the NMSP: mitchell.tartt@noaa.gov, (301) 713-3125 ext. 184. For more information on the educational activities contact Shelley Du Puy of the NMSP: shelley.dupuy@noaa.gov, (979) 779-2705.

For more information on the NMSP, NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration, and other NOAA missions, please visit the websites of project partners listed on the Aquarius website.