Fairbanks, AK - The American Academy of Underwater Sciences hosts its annual symposium this week on the island of Curacao in the Caribbean Sea. A scientist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks Institute of Marine Science is there to accept an award for safety and leadership in underwater diving.
Alaskan waters seem an unlikely place for scuba diving, but Research Professor Steven Jewett has been doing exactly that for nearly 40 years. He says the Aleutians Islands provide some of the best diving in North America. “The bottom is either white or pink and then you’ve got all of these sessile animals that are attached to the rocks down there," he says. "Like sponges and corals and hydroids and so many different species and they’re bright purples and pinks and yellows and just every imaginable color and form down there and my first dive out there I was just spellbound.”
Jewett is this year’s recipient of the Conrad Limbaugh Award for Scientific Diving and Leadership. The award is named for Conrad Limbaugh, who was instrumental in developing the diving program at Scripps Institute of Oceanography back in the 1950s. Jewett says other recipients of the award are leaders in the field. “I was awestruck when I was notified that I got it, because the company that I am now with is amazing,” he says.
Jewett has been diving in Alaskan waters since 1977. Back then, he says diving was much different.
“There was simply nobody else around to dive with, so I would just simply put my tank on, go down and do my dives and get my work done all alone. Today, that’s prohibited.” He admits the water can be cold, but that’s not the most challenging part. “A lot of our diving here in Alaska is remote and so that means you’ve got to be especially cautious to not have any incidents or accidents because you’re so far away, you might not make it to help in time.”
Jewett’s research involves basic assessments of marine life off the Aleutians. He’s also looking into the effects of offshore mining in the Chukchi Sea. He says he plans to continue diving as long as he can.