Mission 31 - Cousteau's Mission
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I'm looking forward to it. For starters, FIU just took over control of the place and this will enable them to get the hang of things. I dropped by yesterday to visit my former OW student, Cathy @ Aquarius Reef Base, and was quite impressed with what I saw. I'm asking her to weigh in on this discussion.
I'm sorry it took me so long to respond to this. I wanted to talk to the Aquanauts and get a better answer for you!
Aquarius gives us the gift of time. Instead of getting, at best, a couple hours of work in each day we can be outside underwater for nine hours. We can literally perform months of research in just a 10-day mission!
Aquarius is the only underwater habitat in the world dedicated to research and education. We can answer critical scientific questions about the oceans and coral reefs, develop important new technologies, train astronauts, as well as inspire people around the world.
The fields of science, technology, engineering and math drive the American economy and this presents an inherent problem when but there is a shortage of young adults going into these fields of study.
Seeing people living underwater doing science – and getting to chat with them live – (As part of our education and outreach we will have live video chats from Aquarius to classrooms all over the world.) will inspire young adults around the world and help propel American competitiveness in the field.
It is easy for people nowadays to take for granted the world and aspire with the great explorations to be excited about. Aquarius can help spark the imagination and curiosity in young adults, it is education – like nothing else!
Mission 31 is allowing us to conduct and extend research projects that we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. We are doing cutting-edge work that will help develop the next generation of underwater instruments and answer questions that will help us protect and manage coral reefs around the world.
We are getting a huge audience for M31 – both in the popular media and directly to classrooms, and this is just the start for Aquarius. Every year missions at Aquarius will reach millions of people. Fabien is a great person to help us launch these programs! Fabien brings a passion for the oceans and audiences that we wouldn’t have otherwise, who will learn how important the oceans are to our lives no matter where we live.
Jacques Cousteau inspired a generation of marine scientists and ocean enthusiasts in all walks of life. He showed that having people out there exploring was critical to inspiring people to care about the oceans. Having Fabien on board with Mission 31 pays tribute to that tradition. Hopefully this will play a role – that Aquarius will continue after M31 – in inspiring the next generation of ocean lovers.
Coral reefs are worth billions of dollars of economic value to people here in South Florida alone. But reefs are threatened around the world by overfishing, pollution, and oceans that are becoming more acidic. In some places, reefs have declined more than 90%. At Aquarius, we are doing research that will help monitor reef health and develop solutions that will protect reefs around the world. A lot of the work we do couldn’t be done anywhere else in the world.
People rely on fish for protein in many parts of the world, but many fish populations are disappearing. And, it’s especially noticeable for the biggest fish. We are trying to figure out how declines in these big predators affect the health of coral reefs. What we learn at Aquarius will help protect reefs and fish around the world so we have healthy ecosystems and fisheries to support people.
A lot of the problems oceans are facing are long-term issues like warming temperatures or waters becoming more acidic. We need to have early warning systems to track these changes. Aquarius can serve as a monitoring station to stream data on ocean health live 24-hours a day.
There is definitely real research going on here. Graduate students from FIU and Northwestern are conducting research and writing publications on their studies during M31.
Some of the research going on during Mission 31 includes:
-The role of seagrass meadows in protecting coral reef organisms from the effects of ocean acidification.
-They’re looking at the way large predator fish affect the feeding habits of herbivore or predatory fish.Measuring the stress response of corals living unencumbered on the seafloor, rather than back in the lab,
-They are investigating the energy budget of barrel sponges (the redwoods of the reef - some are hundreds of years old), by measuring feeding rate and respiration.
-They are assessing the degree of environmental contamination impacting the Aquarius site using a new sampler that mimics how living organisms acquire toxic compounds from their environment.
-They are collecting specimens of sponges for the world’s largest repository of genomic information on marine life, the Ocean Genome Legacy.
-They are quantifying the abundance and health of plankton populations vital to the health of the reef’s inhabitants with sampling round the clock over an entire lunar cycle.
-They will look at how goliath groupers use the sound of a collapsing cavitation bubble formed in their head during false feeding strikes, as a weapon to stun their prey.
I encourage you to look at the blogs that the aquanauts have created, they have a lot more specific information on the research and you can ask them questions if you like!
Aquanaut Adam: zan1for31.weebly.com
Aquanaut Grace: graceunderthesea.com
Aquanaut Liz: lizunderwater.weebly.com
http://aquarius.fiu.edu
http://www.facebook.com/AquariusReefBaseFabien Cousteau's Mission 31
Aquarius gives us the gift of time. Instead of getting, at best, a couple hours of work in each day we can be outside underwater for nine hours. We can literally perform months of research in just a 10-day mission!
Aquarius is the only underwater habitat in the world dedicated to research and education. We can answer critical scientific questions about the oceans and coral reefs, develop important new technologies, train astronauts, as well as inspire people around the world.
The fields of science, technology, engineering and math drive the American economy and this presents an inherent problem when but there is a shortage of young adults going into these fields of study.
Seeing people living underwater doing science – and getting to chat with them live – (As part of our education and outreach we will have live video chats from Aquarius to classrooms all over the world.) will inspire young adults around the world and help propel American competitiveness in the field.
It is easy for people nowadays to take for granted the world and aspire with the great explorations to be excited about. Aquarius can help spark the imagination and curiosity in young adults, it is education – like nothing else!
Mission 31 is allowing us to conduct and extend research projects that we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. We are doing cutting-edge work that will help develop the next generation of underwater instruments and answer questions that will help us protect and manage coral reefs around the world.
We are getting a huge audience for M31 – both in the popular media and directly to classrooms, and this is just the start for Aquarius. Every year missions at Aquarius will reach millions of people. Fabien is a great person to help us launch these programs! Fabien brings a passion for the oceans and audiences that we wouldn’t have otherwise, who will learn how important the oceans are to our lives no matter where we live.
Jacques Cousteau inspired a generation of marine scientists and ocean enthusiasts in all walks of life. He showed that having people out there exploring was critical to inspiring people to care about the oceans. Having Fabien on board with Mission 31 pays tribute to that tradition. Hopefully this will play a role – that Aquarius will continue after M31 – in inspiring the next generation of ocean lovers.
Coral reefs are worth billions of dollars of economic value to people here in South Florida alone. But reefs are threatened around the world by overfishing, pollution, and oceans that are becoming more acidic. In some places, reefs have declined more than 90%. At Aquarius, we are doing research that will help monitor reef health and develop solutions that will protect reefs around the world. A lot of the work we do couldn’t be done anywhere else in the world.
People rely on fish for protein in many parts of the world, but many fish populations are disappearing. And, it’s especially noticeable for the biggest fish. We are trying to figure out how declines in these big predators affect the health of coral reefs. What we learn at Aquarius will help protect reefs and fish around the world so we have healthy ecosystems and fisheries to support people.
A lot of the problems oceans are facing are long-term issues like warming temperatures or waters becoming more acidic. We need to have early warning systems to track these changes. Aquarius can serve as a monitoring station to stream data on ocean health live 24-hours a day.
There is definitely real research going on here. Graduate students from FIU and Northwestern are conducting research and writing publications on their studies during M31.
Some of the research going on during Mission 31 includes:
-The role of seagrass meadows in protecting coral reef organisms from the effects of ocean acidification.
-They’re looking at the way large predator fish affect the feeding habits of herbivore or predatory fish.Measuring the stress response of corals living unencumbered on the seafloor, rather than back in the lab,
-They are investigating the energy budget of barrel sponges (the redwoods of the reef - some are hundreds of years old), by measuring feeding rate and respiration.
-They are assessing the degree of environmental contamination impacting the Aquarius site using a new sampler that mimics how living organisms acquire toxic compounds from their environment.
-They are collecting specimens of sponges for the world’s largest repository of genomic information on marine life, the Ocean Genome Legacy.
-They are quantifying the abundance and health of plankton populations vital to the health of the reef’s inhabitants with sampling round the clock over an entire lunar cycle.
-They will look at how goliath groupers use the sound of a collapsing cavitation bubble formed in their head during false feeding strikes, as a weapon to stun their prey.
I encourage you to look at the blogs that the aquanauts have created, they have a lot more specific information on the research and you can ask them questions if you like!
Aquanaut Adam: zan1for31.weebly.com
Aquanaut Grace: graceunderthesea.com
Aquanaut Liz: lizunderwater.weebly.com
http://aquarius.fiu.edu
http://www.facebook.com/AquariusReefBaseFabien Cousteau's Mission 31
ermaclob
Contributor
Im a student at FIU and have had some interactions with the people running things at Aquarius land operations building. The place is defiantly being used and they have had a few missions done already even some Nasa use. Though, i dont know anything about that Cousteau Mission other then it was proposed i think over a year ago and was finally approved a little while back. Mission 31 is defiantly a real research mission but i can also see it as being a type marketing thing on FIU's side. one of the biggest things that i can say about Aquarius is that there is concern about the funding for the base. that **** eats tons of money even when its not being used and lets face it its not a brand new base. Some of the stuff they got down there is really decrepit. Word of mouth is that although the school has been running the base thus far long term stability seems unlikely. All i know is that my tuition isnt getting cheaper :/ So a big name project might get them more funding in the long term
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