Today, Lead Habitat Technician James Talacek, Habitat Technician Ryan Lapete, Dr. Mark Patterson, Dr. Dale Stokes, Dr. Sylvia Earle and renowned underwater cinematographer D.J. Roller moved into Aquarius where they will spend seven days sharing the excitement, the adventure, and the wonder of living beneath the sea.

This mission is focused on celebrating the 50 years that have passed since Jacques Cousteau put history’s first habitat, Conshelf I, 33 feet underwater off Marseille, France.    It was therefore fitting that this afternoon the Aquanauts at Aquarius Reef Base were accompanied offshore by Jacques’ grandson Fabien Cousteau.

I am too young to have experienced the days of the Conshelf projects, but they have nonetheless had an immense impact on my life.  When I was 11 years old, I found a copy of a National Geographic Magazine from April 1964 with a cover story called “At Home in the Sea” by Captain Cousteau.  Cousteau described his second habitat project called Conshelf II that included a main house called ‘Starfish’, a ‘Deep Cabin’ and a hanger for a diving saucer. Conshelf II was the first step in truly colonizing the sea floor and it had me hooked.  I read Cousteau’s article dozens of times and it set the course for my life.

Twenty-one years after my life was changed forever by Captain Cousteau, and 50 years after Conshelf I proved that saturation diving could work, thereby unlocking the ability to spend almost limitless time at home beneath the sea, we are embarking on one of the most exciting projects in the history of habitats and saturation diving.  I couldn’t feel more privileged to be a part of this adventure.

With Dr. Sylvia Earle as our leader and the amazingly talented underwater cinematographer D.J. Roller of Liquid Pictures putting together an amazing media group, this mission is an unprecedented opportunity to bring the public beneath the waves to experience the wonder of living beneath the sea.

I hope that those of you who join us in person, online, in print, on TV, in the theater and on the radio will leave inspired to make a difference to the world we live in.  I hope that you will be inspired to find the passion in your life just as Captain Cousteau inspired me to find the passion in mine.

As an exciting and inspiring day comes to an end, I will sign off with wishes of a comforting rest for our aquanauts in their new home and thoughts of the new adventures that tomorrow might bring.

Saul Rosser

Operations Director

Aquarius Reef Base

Then, after returning to shore, I served as dive supervisor for astronaut excursions as the NASA team worked on submersible supported exploration techniques.  After several days of practice, the team is now professionally and methodically moving through the process of placing an astronaut on the submersible’s foot restraints, verifying that all umbilicals are clear, and then translating across the sea floor.  It has become a well practiced exercise and a demonstration of professionalism.  Both the competence and the beauty of it are enough to make you smile.

Now, as I sit the night shift at the Watch Desk at 2:30 in the morning, the fish are swarming around one of the external cameras.  The swarm is so think that the view is regularly blocked entirely.  How beautiful.  Even at this hour it makes me smile a caffeine powered smile.

The Aquarius habitat has a lot of things that make you smile; that make you excited.  But, today I saw on the faces of others something more than a smile.  Something more than simply enjoyment.  I saw the uncontrollable grin you get when you have seen something absolutely spectacular and amazing.  The uncontrollable grin you get when you know you’ve just had the experience of a lifetime.  Today was a day of once in a lifetime experiences.  A day of uncontrollable grins.  A day when you could see the amazement in people’s eyes.

Aquarius has a special ability to deliver amazing, inspiring and unforgetable experiences.  Today Aquarius delivered and the smiles turned to grins beyond control.  The memories will last a lifetime.

Wow!  Aquarius!  What a place!  What an adventure!

Good night from the Watch Desk.  Saul Rosser.  Operations Director

For umbilical management, the Aquarius habitat technicians (James or Justin) work with support divers from the Liberty Star.  At the same time, a NASA ‘Test Director’ is in the water providing oversight and photographers and support divers are around assisting.

To add to the adventure, an underwater Imax photography team is capturing the entire thing on their ~450 lb underwater 3d camera!

What an adventure!

Sub operations will continue this morning around 0930, so be sure to follow along.

Saul Rosser, Operations Director, Aquarius Reef Base

First, it’s been a pleasure to work with an outstanding group of multi-talented people that have come and gone over the years. This is a challenging system to keep operational and this fine crew has done it year after year.

Now, onto the reef.  A noted disappearance is the yellow stingray. I used to brief Aquanaut candidates during training about watching where they kneel in the sand due to the dinner plate size rays. They are nowhere to be seen on Conch reef anymore.

I haven’t seen BOB (Big Old Barracuda) for quite a while. He was a large 6 foot snaggle tooth barracuda that hung around the habitat for many years. As you swam towards him, he would not move. Because he didn’t have to! Hope he moved on to bluer waters.

There was also Stumpy, the Southern Stingray with a bit off tale. He was 4-5 feet across and normally you would just see his eyes sticking out of the sand where he was buried, waiting for his next meal. You’d catch a look at his bit off tale when he decided to move.

Another change is the large loss of hard corals. We’ve seen quite a few beautiful coral heads die off from various causes. The sponges, especially barrel sponges, are prolific and seem to provide adequate coverage for the fishes. The fish population seems to be doing fine.

Speaking of fish, an unwanted addition is the invasive lionfish. They are everywhere around the habitat. At times we have to push them out of the way to work on a project. I don’t see them ever being totally eradicated.

Another invasive are Indo-Pacific (I believe) cup corals. They have large orange polyps that come out at night or on cloudy days and they have covered the habitat. It looks like an orange carpet has draped over it. They are beautiful, but aren’t supposed to be here and displace local critters.

So, with two more missions left to do this year, the habitats fate is to be determined. I’m hoping for the best and look forward to living underwater in this familiar place in the future.

Oh ya, one more thing. These things used to be called Journals, now they’re called Blogs. (?)

The first training exercise assumes that the visibility in the water during an excursion has suddenly dropped to 10 feet or less and you and your buddy have become lost. To find your way back to the habitat one member of the buddy team must secure a line on the reef, extend the line out, and together the team swims search circles looking for one of the lines that are secured out on the reef around Aquarius. In order to accurately simulate low visibility, we remove our masks after securing our line and squint through the water furiously as we look for the flagging tape or neon arrows that mark the Aquarius lines.

                The next mask-off activity simulates a situation where one buddy is out of air and both buddies have lost their mask. The team must buddy breath – share one regulator between the two of them, each buddy taking two breaths before passing the air source to their partner – while simultaneously pulling and kicking along an Aquarius line making their way back to the habitat. While at first these drills may seem overly precautionary, their main purpose soon becomes clear: to make you comfortable enough underwater to handle any situation that may arise. Aquarius training is a challenging but reassuring experience that helps you realize that you can effectively handle unplanned events during an excursion.

                After an initial 5 hour dive today, we rinsed off and entered our new home. The habitat has four main sections: the wet porch where all our wet gear is kept and the shower is located, the entry lock which serves mainly as the bathroom and science work area, the kitchen that holds the table, fridge, and invaluable instant water heater that we use to “cook” our delicious mountain house meals (of which I had my first today – chicken breasts with rib meat and mashed potatoes…actually very good with 48 grams of protein! I need those calories for tomorrow), and the bedroom with three bunks stacked on either side.  It’s a small, efficient space, but it has a great view of the snappers, pork fish, and damsels that swim by.

                It seems unreal to look out of the window and see barracuda hovering eerily above you while you write a quick e-mail to a friend. This habitat frequently and consistently amazes me and I am constantly impressed by how it operates. Over the past year I’ve become used to the idea of living underwater but when I take a moment to really think about what is being accomplished with the equipment surrounding me I never fail to be enraptured. The Aquarius habitat proves that human exploration and ingenuity will always push boundaries farther than could have previously been imagined.

                   -  Inga Conti-Jerpe