Aquarius, the only under-sea laboratory habitat closing

[green52]

Aquarius is an undersea habitat that has been in operation by NOAA for decades, but now must be shut down do to budget shortfalls.

I'm rather pissed. We should have large, deep-sea habitats by now. The fact that we haven't gone further annoys me enough, but now its closing, too? What a shame.

http://aquarius.uncw.edu/about/

4865

[Thalassa]

Oh, no! I was just watching a documentary about this place, and now it's shutting down? :-(

[Merman Dan]

Someone needs to tell James Cameron about this. Until then, we have the H2OME (http://www.ussubstructures.com/h2o.html) to look forward to.

[Drowning]

Oh, no! I was just watching a documentary about this place, and now it's shutting down? :-(

Come to Florida and we can dive the site :-)

[Mermaid Cascada]

Awww! :(

[Arella]

Thats so sad!

[Capt Nemo]

Looking at it, the pressure hull is starting to look pretty sad. Salt water can corrode just about anything given enough time. Even sacrificial anodes won't fully protect things. Given the possible replacement costs, that may be the reason it got cut. The other is Obama's cutting of science budgets everywhere except for military/law enforcement programs. Anything that would benefit the people the most got cut.