The Aquarius Underwater Habitat serves as a base and laboratory for marine scientists who live underwater for days at a time as they study our changing coral reef ecosystems and learn to preserve and protect them. This underwater home has operated four miles offshore the Florida Keys and 60 feet underwater since 1992. The Aquarius Foundation supports the missions of Aquarius Reef Base including the one of a kind Aquarius Underwater Habitat.
Explore the tabs to the left to learn more about the Aquarius Foundation, living beneath the sea, our oceans and how you can get involved. A world of adventure and discovery awaits you!
To donate to the Aquarius Foundation via PayPalTM, click below:
A note on our tax exemption status is available here
About Us
The Aquarius Foundation is working towards an exciting future of manned exploration and habitation of the sea floor with a wealth of discoveries to be made about our ocean planet and exciting adventures to inspire people of all ages and backgrounds.
The Aquarius Foundation was formed in 2012 as a non-profit organization to support the continued operation of the Aquarius Habitat in response to the planned termination of federal funding for the Aquarius Reef Base program.
Aquarius Reef Base
The centerpiece of Aquarius Reef Base is the Aquarius Underwater Habitat: a research station where scientists live for days and weeks beneath the sea.
The Habitat is 43 feet long, sleeps six and is located within a coral reef 60 feet underwater. Saturation diving techniques allow aquanauts to remain
underwater for extended periods while postponing decompression requirements until the end of a mission, with missions typically lasting 10-14 days.
Each day the Aquanauts can spend 8-9 hours in the water working. This is an order of magnitude more time than is possible using surface oriented
diving techniques.
In addition to the Habitat, Aquarius Reef Base includes several other key components that leverage the unique capabilities of the Habitat. A surface support buoy called the ‘Life Support Buoy’ or ‘LSB’ floats above the Habitat and provides the Habitat with power and compressed air along with a high capacity data link to shore. A shore facility provides a control room, dockage for research and support vessels as well as laboratories and workshops. Advanced networking and video production capabilities allow Aquarius Reef Base to share the science and adventure with the world.
The unique assets and capabilities of Aquarius Reef Base make it a leader in coral reef research. Aquarius Reef Base is also an exceptional training and test facility for NASA and the U.S. Navy, among others.
Donate
To donate to the Aquarius Foundation via PayPalTM, click below:
Check donations may be made payable to: Aquarius Foundation, PO Box 1215, Islamorada, FL 33036. As PayPal charges a small fee for donations we recommend making larger donations via check.
Funds raised will be used by the Foundation to support Aquarius Reef Base operations, Foundation activities, and related projects including science, education, training and outreach missions.
A note on our tax exemption status is available here
