SCUBAnaut News
Paddling, Kayaking, and Saving Corals
In November, a group of ten nauts traveled from around Florida to Summerland Key for four days of diving-- or at least of adventures! For our first day in the Keys, we spent the morning studying organism identifications. We were divided into two groups, one group did...
Marine Debris and Invasive Species Removal in the Florida Keys
Nauts from the North Carolina Chapter traveled to the Florida Keys to directly tackle two of these in conjunction with the Florida National Park Service in Biscayne Bay National Park. These advanced Nauts removed hundreds of pounds of trash from the reefs as well as dozens of invasive lionfish AND still found time to blog about it!
Scientific Diver Training at Alexander Springs
Have you ever wondered what fantastic secrets lie beneath the surface of the water? I have! SCUBAnauts is a great place to discover some of the answers! With each trip and experience, more of the underwater world is uncovered for me.
“Like a Freshly Minted Astronaut”
Walking around on the seafloor like a freshly minted astronaut. The bubbles from my regulator reminiscent of a peaceful fountain in a meditation room.
Gabe and Sierra hang newly cut coral fragments in the Mote coral nursery. They will later be outplanted to a local reef. Coming eye to eye with a hogfish as I fragmented and hung corals- both of us in awe of one another. All these unbelievably unique experiences gifted to us on our trip to the Florida Keys over a weekend in September.
Scooping Whipped Cream Off Pudding and Other Tales of Microbe Collection
Once I found a patch, I would lower myself to hover directly over the bottom, which was many feet deep of silt, and try to catch the cyanobacteria in the bag. The team at Thunder Bay has tried many collection methods over the years, but the ziplock is simplest and has produced the best, usable results. The best description I heard was it being like trying to scoop whipped cream off pudding into a plastic bag. Each team did six or seven bags to have a total of fourteen collections.
Gaining Experience Rapidly in North Carolina
“…dive buddy went off on our own and studied the fish in places where there were not many divers. Suddenly, I saw a shape moving from behind my dive buddy. As it came closer, I realized it was a sandbar shark! I shook my buddy’s arm…”
Coral Restoration With Help From Yellowtail Snapper
My favorite experience so far on the SCUBAnauts International Summerland Key Trip was the coral restoration work we did with the Mote Marine Lab. We dove down to a depth of around 25-30 feet into Mote’s coral nursey. The nursery is located close to Looe Key Special...
Same Coral, Different Strategy – My Time With Reef Renewal
At a bottom time of 60 minutes we cleaned two trees. During this I imagined them thanking me saying “I can breathe!” and I found myself giggling a little too much about this humorous thought.
An Inky Dark Dive
We saw sleeping parrotfish that created a gel around themselves, so they could sleep, and we also saw plenty of moray eels. All of a sudden, we heard an excited squeal from our dive lead and she turned around, signaling to tell us what was happening. As she did so, the specimen of her excitement presented itself out of the darkness.
Two Days, Eight Dives, Sixteen Nauts and a Lot of Science!
…after the first few skill dives, I got my form a lot better with not kicking up sand and being more observant so that I did not hit coral or other divers. There are also fish that I had personally never seen. When I dove down and learned about a fish called….