AssetID: 55823868
Headline: First US underwater habitat in 40 years lowered onto seabed off Florida reef
Caption: A futuristic underwater habitat has been installed on the seabed off the Florida coast - becoming the first open-ocean human habitat deployed in the US for 40 years. The pressurised base, named Vanguard, has been lowered 56ft (17m) beneath the surface at Tennessee Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Developed by British subsea technology company DEEP, the habitat will allow teams of four aquanauts to live and work underwater for five days or more without returning to the surface. Engineers described the installation as a major milestone in ocean exploration and conservation. The complex operation saw crews first install a foundation on the seabed before carefully lowering the habitat into position and connecting it to a surface support buoy. The deployment follows 18 months of design, construction and testing. Norman Smith, Chief Technology Officer at DEEP, said: "Installing Vanguard at Tennessee Reef was a carefully choreographed marine operation with a lot of moving parts, and the culmination of 18 months of intense design, build and testing efforts. "Successful deployment gets us closer to enabling a continuous human presence in the ocean and is a major step forward in DEEP's mission to make humans aquatic. "From Vanguard we can expand meaningful access to the underwater environment and unlock new possibilities in marine science, environmental monitoring, human performance and extreme environment training." The cylindrical habitat measures 35ft (10.7m) long and just over 8ft (2.5m) wide and has been designed as a home and laboratory for underwater research missions. Scientists will use the facility to spend extended periods studying nearby coral reefs, allowing them to gather continuous data on reef health, marine ecosystems and the effects of climate change. Researchers hope living on the seabed will dramatically increase the amount of time they can spend observing marine life compared with traditional diving expeditions. The habitat will also be used to study how people perform while living in extreme underwater environments, with findings expected to help shape future subsea missions. The project is being supported by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which say the facility will strengthen long-term marine research in one of the world's most important coral reef systems. Eddie Kertis, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, said: "For decades, NOAA has supported using subsea habitats as a platform to reveal ground-breaking discoveries that inform the sanctuary's management well into the future. "The deployment of a new subsea habitat within the sanctuary creates additional opportunities for marine science and builds on research infrastructure, resource stewardship and our long-standing collaboration with the scientific community." The habitat is now undergoing final sea trials and certification before its first crews move in later this year. Vanguard is the first step in DEEP's wider ambition to build a permanent network of underwater habitats, known as Sentinel, that could one day support a sustained human presence beneath the oceans.
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