[PSUBS-MAILIST] new video

Tue Sep 1 01:16:28 EDT 2015

This looks really interesting, Hank, Alan.  They look very similar to shallow water microbialites in Pavilion Lake that I took photos of five years ago.

Do you have a close-up photo of this stuff?  What depth was this video taken?  It is worth investigating further.

The so called "fresh water coral" in Pavilion Lake is cyano-bacteria microbialites.  Very common in fossil form but ridiculously rare in living form.  So far found living only in Pavilion Lake and Kelly Lake in BC, and in a high mountain lake in Chile.  That's really about it.  I will send the video link to Donnie Reid at Nuytco, who is the project manager for the ongoing NASA Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP).  PLRP was a significant joint NASA and CSA space analogue project investigating these ancient life forms that may be similar to life, or fossil life, located on Mars.  For several years Nuytco had the DW2000's in Pavilion and trained various American and Canadian astronauts and astrobiologists in space analogue research.  NASA had their Mobile Mission Control Center there as well.  I dropped in on the 2010 , 2011, and 2014 events in my official capacity as PLRP groupie (actually, in 2010 I  visited as the project manager for the BC Institute of Technology Underwater Observatory project).  PLRP is now a much scaled down NASA funded project, mostly out of NASA Ames Research Center with researchers from several American and Canadian universities attending.  Of course, Nuytco now provides DW2000's for NASA's NEEMO missions at the Aquarius manned undersea habitat off Key Largo. 

Check out the web site www.pavilionlake.com <http://www.pavilionlake.com> .

Pavilion Lake is a very clear lake, but not because the microbialites are filter feeders.  The microbiologists and limnologists are still trying to figure these creatures out.  Take note that Pavilion Lake has very restrictive diving regulations.  There are only two sites where scuba diving is allowed.  Subs are not specifically mentioned in the restrictions, but NASA and CSA get special permits from the feds and province to operate outside of those designated areas for sub-surface operations (divers, ROV's, and submersibles).  Surprisingly, gasoline powered vessels are still allowed on the lake.  We checked out the launch ramp last summer and you should be able to launch your sub from your current trailer without unhooking.  But bring the tow straps just in case.  Apart from the microbialites growing on anything solid (rocks, logs, sticks, pop cans), the bottom is soft.

2010 anecdote: DW2000's are actually quite noisy underwater.

Tim

From: Personal_Submersibles [mailto:personal_submersibles-bounces at psubs.org] On Behalf Of Alan via Personal_Submersibles
Sent: August-30-15 9:15 PM
To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] new video

Your link went to the official "Pepper Pig" site.

Try this 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i_KaFRz8Vpk

Cool, be interesting to see if anyones found the coral in that Lake before.

Tim has marine biology interests, wonder if he knows anything about it.

Alan

Sent from my iPad

On 31/08/2015, at 11:38 am, hank pronk via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org <mailto:personal_submersibles at psubs.org> > wrote:

I just posted two video's from today's dive.  Amazing  freshwater coral images.  Youtube.com <http://Youtube.com>  under Hank Pronk

Hank

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