WALLINGFORD, CONNECTICUT, September 17, 2007 – VBrick Systems announced today that the scientists and educators from NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program will be streaming live reports over the Internet for a nine-day period from the world’s only undersea scientific facility, located in the Florida Keys, starting Sept. 17.  To view the live stream go to: www.vbrick.net/noaa.

KEY STATS

■ Real-time video, audio, and Internet feeds

■ Providing the highest-resolution communications ever from the floor of the ocean

■ Streamed live from the National Marine Sanctuary, Aquarius, located 9 miles SE of Key Largo

■ 60 feet below the surface at the base of Conch Reef

■ The undersea research station is 9 feet in diameter, 43 feet long

■ The station can support diving to depths of 120 feet

■ 6 aquanauts will live in Aquarius for 9 days, supported by a shore-based crew

■ Aquarius is owned by NOAA, administered through NOAA’s National Undersea Research Program, and operated by the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s National Undersea Research Center

While living underwater in the Aquarius ocean laboratory, scientists will investigate changes to corals and marine life in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Webcast their activities in real time to students and general audiences via the OceansLive.org education Web portal.

With less than five-percent of the oceans of the world explored, much is still to be learned. The introduction of streaming video will accelerate the process of harvesting the hard data. The mission, named “Aquarius 2007: If Reefs Could Talk,” will conduct research mainly on sponge biology and ecology and long-term monitoring of coral and fish species.

The timeliness of thi