Contact: Dane Konop FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8/15/97
With six science missions scheduled for 1988, Aquarius is the centerpiece of NOAA's comprehensive environmental research program aimed at better understanding and preservation of endangered coral reef ecosystems in U.S. waters.
Following its first deployment in the Florida Keys from September 1993 to May 1996, Aquarius was completely renovated and upgraded by the National Undersea Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, which operates Aquarius; Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Fort Pierce, Fla.; the Harris Corporation, Melbourne, Fla.; and NOAA. NOAA owns Aquarius and funds its operations.
Officials at the dedication ceremony at Harbor Branch, where the renovation work was done, will include Richard J. Herman, HBOI president and managing director; UNCW Chancellor James R. Leutze; Albert E. Smith, president of the Electronics Systems Sector, Harris Corporation; and NOAA Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Elbert W. Friday Jr. Keynote speaker will be Marvin K. Moss, provost of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
"Aquarius weighs over 80 tons and is approximately the size and shape of a large motor home, but is more like the space shuttle than anything you'd see on the road," said UNCW associate director Steven Miller. "Aquarius provides scientists in scuba gear, called aquanauts, with a home base from which they can safely and efficiently conduct research excursions to the coral reef," Miller said.
Once Aquarius is redeployed on the sea floor near Conch Reef 60 feet below the ocean surface, teams of four scientists from various universities will spend up to nine hours a day conducting environmental research to better understand factors that affect the condition of all coral reefs in Florida in particular, and the health of the coastal oceans in general.
After Aquarius was retrieved from the Florida Keys and moved to Harbor Branch in September 1996, it was fully refurbished and upgraded to improve efficiency, safety and scientific operations. Previously, operations were monitored 24 hours a day from a manned support barge moored above Aquarius. The new system, dubbed "Aquarius 2000," will instead operate using an unmanned support buoy that will use radio telemetry to signal and control operations, as well as provide live audio and video links from Aquarius to shore.
Sophisticated computer and electronic capabilities in Aquarius will allow scientists to conduct research that could not be done from the surface. Links to the Internet will provide other scientists and the public with a virtual window on Conch Reef while Aquarius aquanauts conduct their studies. Aquarius scientists will also be able to send data and images to their home universities for immediate analysis and interpretation.
During its deployment in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary from 1993 until 1996, Aquarius supported more than 100 scientists from three dozen universities in over 20 separate science missions, with an unblemished safety record. Research included studies to determine whether sewage-contaminated ground water threatens the reefs, and coral bleaching research and studies of coral feeding, growth, reproduction and general health to help resource managers protect and sustain coral reefs in Florida.
Aquarius supported nearly two dozen teams of university scientists conducting a variety of marine investigations while deployed in Salt River Canyon off St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, from November 1987 until operations were disrupted by Hurricane Hugo in September 1989.
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