Sixty feet down in the waters off Key Largo, Fla., the water around National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius laboratory is clear and warm and blue. Marine scientists -- aquanauts -- have been coming to live in this underwater habitat since 1993.
But the future of Aquarius is, at the moment, dark and clouded. The
lab, the only one of its kind in the world, has fallen victim to budget
cuts from Washington. NOAA was under orders to tighten up, and the $3
million annual budget for Aquarius was eliminated.
"There were signals that the budget was tight, but we didn't think it
would be zeroed out," said Thomas Potts, Aquarius' director at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington,
which has operated the lab for NOAA. "By the end of July we will have
lost two permanent and three temporary staff members and will no longer
be mission-ready."
"Mission-ready," as Potts put it, means keeping the lab in condition to
be a safe habitat for up to six visitors at a time. The lab, a
48-foot-long cylinder, made it possible for ocean scientists to study
coral reefs or other ocean life, typically on 10-day "missions."
The lab has basic amenities -- bunk beds, laptops, a mini-kitchen -- but
its greatest advantage is that scientists do not have to dive from the
surface, do their work and come back up repeatedly. That protects them
from the bends, the debilitating condition that can happen if one
surfaces too quickly and nitrogen bubbles form in one's muscles.
More than 100 groups of divers have gone to live in Aquarius in the last
two decades, studying biology and the ocean environment. NASA used
Aquarius for its own missions, called NEEMO -- a chance for astronauts
and engineers to get practice at living in closed quarters like a
spacecraft, with limited support from mission control.
But while the lab had an aura of adventure to it, and the scientists who
used it said it was valuable, Washington is struggling with budget
realities.
"NOAA's core mission is to conduct and support scientific research and
exploration of the oceans," said NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco --
herself a marine ecologist -- in a statement. "The Aquarius program has
been a vital part of this research and we fully recognize its
importance. Unfortunately, our budget environment is very, very
challenging and we are unable to do all that we would like."
There is an Aquarius Foundation
trying to raise private funds to keep the lab going, but Potts said its
goal is $750,000 -- a fraction of what it would take to fund active
work. One disadvantage the lab has always faced is that it's expensive
to maintain; even when it's not being used, divers need to go down each
week to keep its systems working in salt water. As it is, the lab's
metal skin is encrusted in marine vegetation.
The lab's defenders say they hope a large donor will come forward. They
say there are possibilities, but so far nothing solid to report.
"Unless we get some pretty good news," said Potts, "our staff is going
to start to drift away. They're very talented people; they won't remain
unemployed long."
Meanwhile, he said, a national asset waits on the sea floor.
"This is unique," he said. "This is one of a kind."
