Project SeaCAMEL Live

(November 12, 2007) Virginia Institute of Marine Science Associate Professor Mark Patterson leads a team of aquanauts as they present six live underwater broadcasts between November 12 and 14 from Aquarius, America’s “Inner Space Station” and the world’s only undersea habitat. Aquarius is deployed three-and-a half miles off Key Largo, at a depth of 60 feet and adjacent to coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

The last broadcast (Wed, 11/14 at 2:00 pm EST) will attempt an underwater first as Gloucester High School senior Michael Crockett uses an Internet connection to control Fetch1, a robotic sub that will be “flying” above Aquarius collecting data in support of the science team’s coral-reef research. Fetch1 is an autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, that moves freely through the water under the control of an onboard computer.

The six live broadcasts—two a day for three days—are part of project “SeaCAMEL” (Classroom Aquarius Marine Education Live), a research and outreach program funded by the Living Oceans Foundation. The LOF is the brainchild of His Royal Highness Prince Khaled bin Sultan of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The project takes its name from the desert camel’s similarity to the Aquarius habitat, as both possess internal life-support systems.

Planned experiments will investigate photosynthesis within corals, metabolism within sponges, reef zooplankton, and oxygen levels in the water surrounding Aquarius.

Aquarius is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and managed by the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

Schedule of Live Broadcasts

Monday, November 12, 2007 (all times EST)
2:00–3:00 pm	Introduction to Aquarius: External and internal tour of Aquarius habitat to show Aquarius as an undersea laboratory (marine engineering and technology); broad overview of all modules (given by Dr Patterson from inside the habitat)
7:00–8:00 pm	The Reef at Night: Focus on behavioral changes of reef organisms – feeding by corals and large predators, fish sleeping (e.g. parrotfish in mucus cocoon), and using ultraviolet fluorescent imaging to see reef organisms in a new way
Tuesday, 13 November 2007 (all times EST)
11:00am–12:00pm	Reefs under Siege: Introduction to coral biology and threats to reefs; use Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) fluorometry to measure photosynthetic health of corals in the natural environment (light and shade) and under stress (the upstream and downstream sides of coral that is having water pumped past it).
2:00–3:00pm	Sponges – the Reef’s Filters: Inject dye into sponges to show and calculate rates of pumping; measure oxygen levels around of the water passing into and out of a sponge to calculate rate of metabolism. See how sponge size affects metabolism: the mouse-elephant curve
Wednesday, 14 November 2007 (all times EST)
11:00am–12:00pm	Physical Oceanography: Boundary layer measurements – oxygen profiles from seabed to a few meters above seabed; does the Aquarius induce a local “island mass effect” thereby altering the physical environment of the reef?
Thursday, 15 November 2007
All day	Project SeaCAMEL aquanauts will conduct a series of live video-teleconferences with pre-selected audiences from inside the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory throughout the day.

Media Logistics

David Malmquist	davem@vims.edu	804-684-7011
Melinda Harrison	harrison@livingoceansfoundation.org	301-577-1288
Fred Gorell, NOAA	fred.gorell@noaa.gov	301-734-1021

Links

Background information, biographies, and a detailed schedule are available at http://seacamel.livingoceansfoundation.org/
SeaCAMEL @ VIMS
Aquarius
Immersion Presents
Mediarts