The Aquanauts had killed the power and strapped on their emergency air masks. Someone smelled burning. In a rich-oxygen environment like Aquarius, fires can spread with ferocity; any hint of combustion is taken with utter seriousness. The air wasn't circulating as it was supposed to, and, up above, the life support buoy sounded like it was going to explode. Instead of a steady, even hum, the generator sounded like something between a between a bark and like it was gagging. Read More >>

Otto Ruttan got married to Leanne in the Aquarius Reef Base on March 26th, 1996. They met at Aquarius during his first day on the job. She was a marine biologist doing aquanaut training and he, being the new guy, was assigned to count laps during the swimming drill. Read More >>

You think carrying your shopping up your 2nd-floor flat is a pain in the ass? Try bringing that stuff into an undersea base without it getting soaked. How do you do it? The answer is surprisingly low-tech: pressure pots. Read More >>

You can see it from the surface of the water: a blue outline 50 feet down. Aquarius. The last undersea base. Diving down to it is like falling slowly into another world. Read More >>

So, you want to become an aquanaut? Do you have the right stuff? What is the right stuff? Do you even know what an Aquanaut is? Read More >>

Two days ago, in the ocean a few miles off Key Largo Florida, I watched a woman dive 20 feet down to a sandy bottom. Conch skittered across sea floor while fish pecked at a nearby reef. A Barracuda snuck up behind me and glittered as it passed by. Then, an odd thing happened. The woman on the sea floor stopped swimming, grasped her neck with both hands and a large cloud of air—it appeared to be an entire lung full—escaped from her bright yellow steel dive helmet. The bubbles scattered the fish. Then, the stream of air stopped entirely. Read More >>