Mission 31 Cousteau and Armenia. The ATC 2005 graduate Garnik Sevoyan was one of the two visitors, selected from 2000 worldwide, to dive down 20 meters into the Aquarius to visit Fabien Cousteau during Mission 31 and 1st Armenian in the underwater habitat. In 1963, a legendary French underwater explorer, filmmaker and scientist Jacques Cousteau and a team of underwater researchers lived for a record 30 days in an ocean lab known as Conshelf II at the bottom of the Red Sea, at depth of 10 meters. 50 years later, in June 2014, his grandson Fabien Cousteau announced about expedition Mission 31, aiming to stay underwater for 31 days to honor his grandfathers legacy while beating his record by one day and living twice deeper and further while broadcasting each moment on multiple channels exposing the world to the adventure, risk and mystique of what lies beneath. Mission 31 took place in AQUARIUS, the world’s only underwater marine laboratory located 20 meters below the surface near deep coral reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, US. I arrived to Florida Keys on 22nd of June and was taking 3-4 dives every day for a week, before going down to Aquarius Reef Base. At the beginning it was just another extreme for me, but with every dive I took and every minute I spend underwater exploring the ocean, I felt the responsibility the underwater life, a world which we know so little about. Finally on June 28th, we headed to Reef Base, where we dived down to 20 m under the ocean and appeared in a room with scientists and ocean explorers, while feeling that our body is still diving. During my visit to Fabien in Aquarius, I asked him: “Why you decided to break your grandfather’s record?” Fabian answered: “At my 4th birthday my grandfather took me down to the Sea to dive. As a matter of fact staying one day longer is just a hook to bring the attention of the world to the Ocean and the overarching theme for Mission 31 is the human-ocean connection within the lens of exploration and discovery. Three main topics will be highlighted throughout Mission 31: climate change and the related challenges of ocean acidification; ocean pollution with an emphasis on the effects of plastics; and overconsumption of resources with specific focus on the decline of biodiversity.” – The Environmental Protection classes in ATC taught by Astghine Pasoyan flashed in my head when talking about climate change and pollution. The impressions from this dive, meeting and conversation with F. Cousteau will last for the whole life, this for sure was an experience of a lifetime, an epic dive to the deep blue.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 11:09:42 +0000
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