Lionfish Sampling Day 4: Working in Space

Each site we visit is marked with 8 floats attached to the bottom in precice locations. The floats also have livestock tags attached to to bottom in case the floats break off. Since the sites are only visited once every 3 months, there is a fairly high chance that at least one of the floats will  go missing. If this happens, we have to do our best to find the tag, clean it off, and replace the float. Today we visited two sites that hast lost several of their buoys. We were able to find the locations of the tags. We then replaced each of the missing floats with a new one.

Anytime I am doing this sort of work under water I feel like I am working in space, possibly doing critical maintenance on the Hubble Space Telescope or the International Space Station. Since we don't know what the state of the site will be I bring several extra floats and zip-ties along with me on each dive. While I am perusing the site for lionfish, I also keep an eye on each of the markers. If I arrive at a marker and the float is intact, I will clean it off, removing any of the plants or animals that have started to grow on the line or the float. If I arrive at the approximate location where the float should be and I don't see it, I will spend a few minutes searching for the livestock tag. I can often find it on the bottom. I then clean it off & thread a new float line through the spot where the tag is. This entire procedure makes me feel like I am in space. I can't see any of the gear that I'm carrying with me, but I know exactly where each piece of gear is. Each of the floats is buoyant, of course, and will float aways if you let go of it. Other gear is negatively buoyant, but I have to make sure to place it where I can see it to pick it up and not let it slide away. I also have a propensity to hold things in my mouth since I only have two hands. Of course, with a regulator in my mouth I can't use it for holding onto gear when I run out of hands. Much like space, I have to think hard about each move I am going to make before I make it. I have to hang on to all of my gear, and I have to make sure that I finished everthing completely and have picked up all gear before I move on to the next task.