Contact: Phil Renaud Online underwater classroomsPoject SeaCAMEL at Aquarius
Landover, MD -- When Project SeaCAMEL's team of four aquanauts dives down to the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory off Key Largo for three days next month, the world will be able to join them live online. From November 12 - 14, students and ocean enthusiasts can be part of the aquanaut's scientific explorations, as they conduct a series of coral reef experiments on the cutting edge of marine science.
SeaCAMEL is the first in a series of "ocean literacy" classrooms developed by the Khaled bin Sultan LIVING OCEANS Foundation, a Landover, Maryland-based non-profit organization dedicated to ocean conservation, protection and Science Without Borders" (an international program of scientific research expeditions). "Project SeaCAMEL is designed to inspire young marine scientists by providing an unparalleled opportunity for actual and virtual participation in underwater coral reef science classes," said Captain Philip G. Renaud, USN (ret), Executive Director of the LIVING OCEANS Foundation. "We will connect students with live images and educational instruction from sea to shore by integrating the latest innovations in audio, video and Internet technologies." University professors and middle school teachers across the US can access Project SeaCAMEL"s live Web casts using the standard commodity Internet or the higher bandwidth Internet 2, and selected schools will participate in live teleconferences with the aquanauts. Additionally, as many as 30 after school programs, museums and aquariums will receive a direct satellite feed from project partner Immersion Presents, which is also providing a free activity guide for eighth and ninth grade teachers. Two hour-long underwater classrooms will be broadcast each day on topics including the photosynthetic health of corals; sponges as the reef"s filters; behavioral changes of reef organisms at night, and a survey of fish populations around the Aquarius Habitat. For a complete schedule see: www.livingoceansfoundation.org/seacamel
On the last day of the mission, November 14, viewers will meet "Fetch1," a free-swimming robotic fish carrying a sophisticated array of water quality and ultrasound sensors. From Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Virginia, senior Michael Crocket will send Fetch1 commands over the Internet to conduct an imaging study of the Aquarius Habitat around Conch Reef. "To our knowledge this is the first time an autonomous underwater vehicle will be controlled remotely over the Internet," said Mark Patterson, Project SeaCAMEL's mission leader. "This is the wave of the future for this type of robotic technology," added Patterson. "It's similar to controlling Mars Pathfinder"s robotic devices from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California." In addition to Dr. Patterson, the Seacamel aquanauts are: Captain Phil Renaud, USN (ret), Executive Director of the LIVING OCEANS Foundation; Dr. Annelise Hagan, LIVING OCEANS" Chief Project Scientist, and D.J. Roller, cinematographer. Graduate students from the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences at the College of William and Mary, where Patterson is an associate professor, will provide support for the mission from the Aquarius base station in Key Largo. ### The Aquarius Undersea Laboratory is the world's only research station offering scientists the ability to live and work for extended time periods in an underwater environment. About the size of a school bus, Aquarius is located at a depth of 62-feet in the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary. Aquarius is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and operated by the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. http://www.uncw.edu/aquarius Contacts CAPT Philip Renaud
Dr. Mark Patterson
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
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