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The Aquarius Project:
A SCUBA Diving Studio 2BSM destination
Part Two
Read Part One
By Karen, 15
Karen is one of six Girl Scouts selected to journey to underwater laboratories, coral reefs, and the Aquarius habitat. Few people other than the scientists who work in Aquarius are invited inside. Check out part two of Karen's incredible journey to the depths of the sea.
Hangin' at the Lodge 'Snuba' style
Saturday 7-16-05
After breakfast we headed to the French Reef for two more dives. The highlight of my morning occurred when I saw a hawksbill sea turtle six feet away!
Our afternoon dive was called a "snuba dive" because our main air source was a tank at the surface that connected to a long hose called a hookah. We wore masks, snorkels, fins, weights, and small tanks to get us the 20-25 feet to Jule's Undersea Lodge.
The lodge is three long tubes enclosed in a metal frame and is comparable to an upside-down cup pushed under the water in a swimming pool that keeps in the air, which is pressurized.
The scientists inside the Lodge taught us the history of underwater habitats and showed a movie about La Chalupa, the laboratory near Puerto Rico that was moved to Key Largo to become Jule's.
After our lesson, we swam to the lab and the instructor showed us a variety of sea life, including sea squirt that first grow together like petals on a flower and share nutrients, but are considered individual animals. He also showed us a blue crab about the size of my hand and a stone crab that was twice as big. We viewed underwater life from the fish bowl (a glassed-in hemisphere under the lab) which has mirrors on it to attract fish.
Living a Dream
Sunday 7-17-05
Today was our day at Aquarius! We drove to NURC (National Undersea Research Center) to begin our adventure and were greeted by the staff who monitor Aquarius from their headquarters in a house. Their monitoring devices include four cameras that constantly watch the habitat, gauges relaying stats about the air composition and pressure inside, a direct phone line, a computer chat, and radios in the habitat and outlying stations.
We met two scientists named Kristin and Matt who showed us around Aquarius, which is about the size of a school bus. They told us about their research on upwelling and explained how it affects the reefs. We finished our day with a swim around the habitat. It was incredible!
From the Ocean to the Stars
Monday 7-18-05
After breakfast we headed to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Headquarters, where Bill Goodwin gave a presentation on how grounded ships damage the reefs and what is being done to restore them.
Since the water was so shallow, we didn't get to go over much of the coral reef itself, but we did see barracuda, fish, and conch shells, and Nancy showed us where hurricanes had overturned large coral heads. Back on the boat, Nancy taught us to use the Niskin bottle for water sampling, the Secchi disk for testing visibility, and a refractometer for measuring salinity.
For our last activity, we went out on a snorkel boat for an astronomy lesson and a plankton tow. Our leader, Kim, taught us about the constellations (the star patterns are actually called asterisms; constellations are sections of the sky) and we did another plankton tow and saw flashes of bioluminescence in the net.
All Good Things Must Come to an End
Tuesday 7-19-05
The last day of our adventure arrived! I learned so much on this trip, including how to identify many types of reef fish, invertebrates, and other sea life. I got to know six great girls and became really comfortable with diving during my time here. I had a wonderful experience and can't wait to go diving again soon! |
