HURRICANE IRENE CANCELS AQUARIUS UNDERSEA MISSION,
AQUANAUTS IN DECOMPRESSION FOR RECOVERY THIS AFTERNOON

October 14, 1999 — The threat of Hurricane Irene, now over Cuba and possibly heading for the Florida Keys, caused the cancellation today of the October mission of the undersea laboratory Aquarius. This was the fifth of six science missions planned for this season. The mission team is led by Dr. Mark Patterson (Virginia Institute of Marine Science), and their work continues long-term coral reef studies related to the distribution, abundance, and growth of sponges. Surprisingly, sponges are little studied on coral reefs yet they are often the most abundant organism present and they have profound affects on community structure, and even water quality.

"We take a conservative approach to storm planning to prevent the dangerous situation of saturated aquanauts trapped in Aquarius under severe tropical storm or hurricane conditions," said Dr. Steven Miller, Director of the National Undersea Research Center at the University of North Carolina at the Wilmington, which operates the Aquarius program.

Aquarius, funded by NOAA, is unique because it is the only underwater laboratory that allows scientists to live and work beneath the sea for up to 10 days to study coral reefs and the coastal ocean.

"We plan far enough ahead to conduct decompression with sufficient time to recover aquanauts before sea conditions deteriorate," Miller said. "Since normal decompression takes 17 hours, we began the process last night. The process will end this afternoon, after which the aquanauts will leave Aquarius and return to shore."

Rather than let the aquanauts ride out a storm, which could damage Aquarius as well as damage shore-based facilities, the decision is made to end the mission and ensure the safety of the scientists and our staff, Miller said. "We hate to cancel missions, but safety is paramount in all our operations," he added.

"From past experience, we know that Aquarius gets bounced about a bit during major storms. During Hurricane George we recorded 24-foot waves at Conch Reef, where Aquarius operates. While we remove people from Aquarius, we leave behind oceanographic equipment to monitor storm conditions at the site. We have several interesting research papers from data we collected during past storms."

This is the second Aquarius mission this season to be canceled because of a hurricane. The October mission was scrapped when Hurricane Floyd threatened the Florida Keys. The mission had not begun when the decision was made to postpone it to 2000. "Some mission years in the past were unaffected by weather, but 1999 saw a lot more activity in our region," Miller said.

The next mission is scheduled to begin November 8, and will address the ecological significance of growth and reproduction by an important sediment producing green seaweed on coral reefs. The mission team is led by Dr. Celia Smith (University of Hawaii). You can follow Aquarius and its science missions at the world's first underwater Web site: http://www.uncwil.edu/nurc/aquarius.

 

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