ScubaSarus
Guest
Its great that the quarry is getting more publicity. A few of us also attended a seminar on scientific diving by Jeff Godfrey a few years ago. I believe he also dives on The Monitor in NC
New camera gets test run at quarries
By JEFF MILL, Middletown Press Staff
02/08/2006
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PORTLAND -- Next stop Antarctica.
A small high-definition underwater video camera made its maiden voyage in the North Quarry Tuesday; today, it is scheduled to be shipped to Antarctica where it will be used by a University of Connecticut researcher studying an unusual micro organism.
Jeff Godfrey, the diving safety officer for the marine sciences program at the UConn branch at Avery Point in Groton, brought the camera to the quarry for what was essentially a test drive before sending it south to aid in the underwater research.
Godfrey was accompanied by Kari Heinonen, a doctoral candidate at Avery Point.
In turn, Godfrey and Heinonen were joined by Frank Hayes, one of the three principals of Brownstone Exploration and Discovery LLC, which has leased the quarry for development as a dive center and water park.
A diver himself, Hayes and his brothers Ed and Sean have touted the quarry as a preferred environment for just the kind of exercise Godfrey and Heinonen were conducting on Tuesday.
The camera only arrived at the waterfront campus in Groton on Monday, Godfrey said. Ordinarily, he would have taken the camera out to test it in the waters of Long Island Sound just off the campus. But, Godfrey explained, on Monday, the wind was blowing at 40 knots, churning up the waters of the Sound and reducing visibility to "zero."
Because they both belong to the fraternity of divers, Godfrey said he reached out to Hayes, who readily agreed to let Godfrey and Heinonen use the quarry for their test dives.
In the past, the Hayes brother have invited police and other emergency response divers to train the quarry. Ed Hayes said inviting Godfrey and Heinonen to test the camera in the quarry is just a natural extension of that policy.
The brothers intend to begin operations in the quarry this summer.
Standing on the promontory that juts out into the quarry, Godfrey gestured at the quarry and said. "Its just a great, great place to come out to, and its a nice environment." And, he said, in contrast to the storm-tossed Sound, "Its flat calm."
Wearing layers of fleece under bulky dry suits, Godfrey and Heinonen took the small Sony high-definition video camera, mounted in an waterproof Ikelite container, down to depths as deep as 60 feet -- where, checking a gauge, Heinonen reported the water temperature was 36 degrees.
When their UConn colleague, Pat Kremer, descends into the waters off Antarctica, however Godfrey said she will be operating in temperatures of 30-31 degrees -- that sometimes drop as low as 28 degrees.
Whats more, Godfrey said, Kremer may venture out as much as 100 miles from the Antarctic coast as she tracks the salp.
As the diving safety officer, Godfrey said, he would not let Kremer and her team take the camera into that environment without first checking it out; and so the trip to -- and into -- the quarry.
Heinonen, who studies fish and invasive species in Long Island Sound, said Kremer is studying the remarkable salp, which is a vertebrae in the larva, but which later outgrows its spine.
But that is only one of the remarkable features of the open-ended, barrel-shaped hermaphrodites, which can form into chains of up to a mile in length.
Godfrey said Kremer is studying salp, which swims in the open ocean, in conjunction with its interaction with krill, which usually gathers beneath to polar ice cap.
With the ice cap rapidly receding, scientists are hoping to learn what impact the loss of their environment could have on krill, which occupy a crucial place in the food chain.
To contact Jeff Mill, call (860)347-3331 ext. 221 or email jmill@middletownpress.com.
New camera gets test run at quarries
By JEFF MILL, Middletown Press Staff
02/08/2006
email this storyEmail to a friendpost a commentPost a Commentprinter friendlyPrinter-friendly
PORTLAND -- Next stop Antarctica.
A small high-definition underwater video camera made its maiden voyage in the North Quarry Tuesday; today, it is scheduled to be shipped to Antarctica where it will be used by a University of Connecticut researcher studying an unusual micro organism.
Jeff Godfrey, the diving safety officer for the marine sciences program at the UConn branch at Avery Point in Groton, brought the camera to the quarry for what was essentially a test drive before sending it south to aid in the underwater research.
Godfrey was accompanied by Kari Heinonen, a doctoral candidate at Avery Point.
In turn, Godfrey and Heinonen were joined by Frank Hayes, one of the three principals of Brownstone Exploration and Discovery LLC, which has leased the quarry for development as a dive center and water park.
A diver himself, Hayes and his brothers Ed and Sean have touted the quarry as a preferred environment for just the kind of exercise Godfrey and Heinonen were conducting on Tuesday.
The camera only arrived at the waterfront campus in Groton on Monday, Godfrey said. Ordinarily, he would have taken the camera out to test it in the waters of Long Island Sound just off the campus. But, Godfrey explained, on Monday, the wind was blowing at 40 knots, churning up the waters of the Sound and reducing visibility to "zero."
Because they both belong to the fraternity of divers, Godfrey said he reached out to Hayes, who readily agreed to let Godfrey and Heinonen use the quarry for their test dives.
In the past, the Hayes brother have invited police and other emergency response divers to train the quarry. Ed Hayes said inviting Godfrey and Heinonen to test the camera in the quarry is just a natural extension of that policy.
The brothers intend to begin operations in the quarry this summer.
Standing on the promontory that juts out into the quarry, Godfrey gestured at the quarry and said. "Its just a great, great place to come out to, and its a nice environment." And, he said, in contrast to the storm-tossed Sound, "Its flat calm."
Wearing layers of fleece under bulky dry suits, Godfrey and Heinonen took the small Sony high-definition video camera, mounted in an waterproof Ikelite container, down to depths as deep as 60 feet -- where, checking a gauge, Heinonen reported the water temperature was 36 degrees.
When their UConn colleague, Pat Kremer, descends into the waters off Antarctica, however Godfrey said she will be operating in temperatures of 30-31 degrees -- that sometimes drop as low as 28 degrees.
Whats more, Godfrey said, Kremer may venture out as much as 100 miles from the Antarctic coast as she tracks the salp.
As the diving safety officer, Godfrey said, he would not let Kremer and her team take the camera into that environment without first checking it out; and so the trip to -- and into -- the quarry.
Heinonen, who studies fish and invasive species in Long Island Sound, said Kremer is studying the remarkable salp, which is a vertebrae in the larva, but which later outgrows its spine.
But that is only one of the remarkable features of the open-ended, barrel-shaped hermaphrodites, which can form into chains of up to a mile in length.
Godfrey said Kremer is studying salp, which swims in the open ocean, in conjunction with its interaction with krill, which usually gathers beneath to polar ice cap.
With the ice cap rapidly receding, scientists are hoping to learn what impact the loss of their environment could have on krill, which occupy a crucial place in the food chain.
To contact Jeff Mill, call (860)347-3331 ext. 221 or email jmill@middletownpress.com.
