Aquarius Reef Base, world’s only undersea lab, falls victim to budget ax
Deployed in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary two decades ago after a four-year stint in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the laboratory has hosted 117 missions since 1993. The 81-ton yellow tube holds six bunks, a galley, a bathroom, a science station and a “wet porch,” where scuba-diving researchers enter and exit. Visitors can stay for up to two weeks with no worry of getting the bends, because the air inside the Aquarius is pressurized.
Researchers, who dive up to 12 hours a day, have used the platform to investigate everything from how sponges change the ocean’s chemistry to the way water flows over a reef.
But the federal budget crunch and cost overruns in NOAA’s satellite program have put pressure on the “wet side” of the agency’s budget — its ocean programs. Funding for the national undersea research program plunged from $7.4 million in fiscal year 2011 to $3.98 million in fiscal 2012, before the administration slated it for elimination in fiscal year 2013.
By contrast, NOAA has asked for more than $2 billion to fund its weather satellite program in 2013 — a $163 million increase from the current fiscal year.
full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/aquarius-reef-base-worlds-only-undersea-lab-falls-victim-to-budget-ax/2012/07/24/gJQAKB1U6W_singlePage.html
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