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Journal 2- Bill Leggat: Day 2: Tuesday, June 11, 2002
I have just woken up from my first night in the habitat, it was slightly disorientating jumping out of bed and realizing that I was 45 feet under the water. However, it is great being able to just look out the viewport and see the fish swimming by, it is like having your own huge aquarium out every viewport. Our first day down here was an amazing experience - although slightly stressful. It takes a while to get used to the various sounds that you hear in the habitat. The loudest can most easily be described as the habitat "farting." Because air is constantly being pumped into the habitat it has to eventually go out somewhere. Periodically, a large bubble is forced out of the wet porch accompanied with a very loud belch, there were a few quick glances at each other the first time we heard this noise, trying to work out what (or who) was the source. Looking out of the viewport you can see the entire food chain in action. At night small plankton are attracted to the habitat lights, sometimes the portholes are almost covered with 1 millimeter long animals forming a moving blanket. If you look closely you can see slightly larger predators (worms etc) swimming through - feeding. In the background you can also see some of the smaller planktivorous fish and the larger predators that feed on the planktivors. Luckily enough I was able to go out for a night dive while checking some of our corals. It is incredible how different the reef looks at night. Working close to Aquarius, the habitat lighting means that no matter where you are you always know where you are relative to Aquarius. It is slightly eerie, glancing back at the habitat, as all you can see is a vague shape surrounded by lights. I was almost waiting to see it lift off and disappear into the distance. During the night dive there were astounding numbers of fish on the reef. Two highlights for me were a nurse shark sitting on the sand bottom that we saw as soon as we left the habitat, and a 50 cm yellow trumpet fish that was sitting underneath the wet porch that refused to get out of our way when we returned to Aquarius. Cheers from the habitat. |
Mission
Date: June, 2002 Mission Summary Aquanaut Profiles Expedition Journals Mission Pictures |
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