Two weeks under the sea at Aquarius Reef Base

Travel down to Aquarius Reef Base, the only underwater research lab on the sea floor, with Mission 31 aquanaut and scientist Liz Bentley Magee. In this NOVA PBS video, she explains what it’s like to live in this incredible marine habitat for two weeks, and how living 63 feet underwater gives scientists unprecedented local access to their underwater experiments.

Mission 31 made the news when Fabien Cousteau, mission leader and grandson of legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, succeeded at safely living underwater for a record-breaking 31 days. Also accomplished on the June 2014 mission: three years worth of science and data collection.

During Mission 31, science partners Florida International University (FIU) and Northeastern University will collaborate to study 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. Cousteau’s Bonnet Rouge production team is also shooting short and long format documentaries for Mission 31.

For more on the mission — “a feat so rare, more people have lived in outer space than underwater” — check out this mid-mission visit with Cousteau:

Related watching: Swimming with huge Goliath Groupers, Researching the impact of sunken shipping containers, Searching for Life in Iceland’s Frigid Fissures, and Thailand’s Moken people have incredibly clear underwater vision.