Historical Underwater Habitat Showcase: Aegir

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Aegir is among the small club of habitats ever to be successfully deployed deeper than 500 feet, and the only one to be deployed off Hawaii. Talk about a dream assignment! As beautiful as the Hawaiian islands are, the really stunning sights to see there are underwater.

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Named for a sea giant from Norse mythology, the Aegir consisted of two main modules joined in the middle by a sphere. It was one of the first habs to include ballast tanks so it could raise and lower itself, whereas Sealab (for example) needed to be raised and lowered by crane.

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Aegir was deployed a number of times in various locations besides Hawaii such as Butler Bay, near St. Croix. It was planned to be Aquarius' replacement when it was moved to Florida, but funding fell through, leading to the habitat being scuttled in 1973.

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Pardon the poor image quality, photographs of the inside of Aegir are very rare. It's one of the more obscure habitat projects from the golden age of Man in the Sea.

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Aegir's chief advantage was the ease of mobility. The ballast tanks and barge-like design made it similar to La Chalupa in this respect such that it was easy to relocate from one site to another if it was felt they had learned everything possible from that location.

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I had a book with some rare black and white photos of Aegir, but gifted it to a journalist during my participation in MDRS 116. Living and Working in the Sea, by Ian Koblick and another author whose name escapes me, is an unfortunately quite expensive treasure trove of rare photos and other information about obscure habitat projects like this one.

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Anyway that's all for this time. Stay tuned for subsequent installments!

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^{Stay Cozy!}