Passage III

Working and Living under the Sea

[1]

Underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau, exploring under the sea, predicted that one day humans would be "freed from the bondage of the surface" to work and even live underwater. In the 1960s, this became reality when the U.S.Navy deployed it's first undersea habitat, SeaLab. (33)

[2]

An undersea habitat allowed divers to remain on the ocean floor for extended periods between dives. Because the pressure inside is matched to the pressure of the ocean depth outside, divers can enter and exit at will without fear of decompression sickness—the dangerous bends. This ability extends the time that scientists can work greatly underwater.

(36) For example, at a depth of sixty feet. Work would be limited to one hour per day if the dives had to start from the water surface, using SeaLab, divers can work each day for as long as they desire.

[3]

Not long ago, the most advanced in a series of undersea habitats, Aquarius, was rested on the ocean floor in the Florida Keys. Bolted to a two-hundred-ton platform sixty-six feet below sea level at Conch Reef, scientists at this research outpost are offered a unique opportunity to study the impact of pollution on coral reefs. (40)

[4]

Hidden under the waves, Aquarius is a bright yellow, forty-three-foot-long cylinder. Inside, scientists live in homey if cramped quarters, with bunks, a shower and toilet, a microwave, and an array of scientific instruments. They can watch marine life through large portholes, and enter and exit their pressurized domicile through the moonpool, a special air pocket that keeps the ocean outside.

[5]

[1] At a depth of sixty-six feet, this decompression takes seventeen hours. [2] When the mission is complete and it is time for the aquanauts to return to land, the pressure inside the habitat must be gradual and returned to that of sea level before divers can ascend. [3] A small price, Cousteau would likely have said, for being freed from the surface for so long. (44)