Dive into the Future with Tiffany Duong, Sandals Resorts and PROTEUS

I’ve had some epic vacations at Sandals Resorts. From shipwrecks in Grenada to dolphins in Jamaica, the adventures and the scuba diving have been tops! Paired, after all, with luxurious and stress-free stays at the resorts – what extra might you ask for? How about an astronaut? And, an aquanaut? How about each – collectively?!

In August 2024, I used to be fortunate to dive at Sandals Royal Curaçao alongside aquanaut Fabien Cousteau, NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski, and their unimaginable Proteus Ocean Group (POG) staff in Curaçao as they ready for the subsequent section of PROTEUS™. This cutting-edge undersea analysis station and sensible ocean platform will change the method we discover and relate to the ocean. Conceived as the Worldwide Area Station of the Sea, it’s going to be the boldest, raddest, latest, and most superior platform that’s ever existed for us to know what goes on beneath the waves and, extra importantly, why and how that impacts life above the floor, too.

EPIC sounding, proper? Spoiler: the go to didn’t disappoint!

Pictured: [Sandals Royal Curaçao’s](https://www.sandals.com/royal-curacao/) customized Newton Dive Boat.

A Custom of Excellence

As an explorer and storyteller myself, I’m all the time on the lookout for brand new and uncommon tales about the sea. When the POG staff invited me alongside for his or her website go to and persevering with research, I virtually ran to the airport!

The day I arrived in Curaçao, I checked into my stunning Sandals room and shortly bought prepared for the massive press convention asserting the undertaking’s subsequent section: the finalization of PROTEUS™’ location. The occasion was hosted in the U.S. Consulate Common property in Willemstad. As the solar went down with a stunning view over the ocean, Cousteau and Parazynski launched themselves and PROTEUS™ to the crowd – and positioned this monumental achievement inside the context of a storied historical past of exploration, schooling, conservation, and collaboration.

It’s all the time been about connecting individuals to the oceans, Cousteau reminded us. His grandfather was Jacques-Yves Cousteau: oceanographer, filmmaker, and co-inventor of the first scuba tools. Fabien, his first-born grandson, has inherited his grandfather’s renaissance strategy to sharing and defending our oceans. What a legacy, I assumed to myself as Cousteau confirmed an image of him on his well-known grandfather’s shoulders. Like the elder Cousteau, Fabien additionally employs cutting-edge expertise, massive concepts, and a multifaceted strategy to serving to individuals see, perceive, and study to like our blue planet.

Pictured: Fabien Cousteau at the U.S. Consulate Common property in Willemstad, Curaçao.

When Parazynski took the stage, it grew to become clear that he additionally is not any stranger to daring adventures and new frontiers. A veteran of 5 Area Shuttle flights and seven spacewalks, this astronaut’s newest mission included a dramatic, unplanned extra-vehicular exercise (EVA) to restore a life photo voltaic array. He shared this story and others at the press convention. He’s additionally in the United States Astronaut Corridor of Fame and the first individual to have flown in area and summited Mount Everest – Earth’s highest level. Informal, I mused as I watched him joke with the viewers effortlessly and make connections between what we had been doing right here undersea and what he’d accomplished in his profession as an astronaut.

Now, they’re becoming a member of forces with an elite staff of masterminds and visionaries to deliver PROTEUS™ to life. With their spectacular resumes, it’s clear these explorers know the way to dream massive and execute on a plan. And, now, we get to expertise it first hand!

Pictured: The PROTEUS Workforce

Location, Location, Location

So, why Curaçao?

This tropical island is understood for its seashores and wealthy underwater world, however there are numerous paradisical locations on the map. What makes Curaçao particular?

From Cousteau himself, I realized that, not like most different Caribbean coral reefs, Curaçao’s are literally accreting – or rising and constructing upwards. This means a wholesome reef that may extra probably maintain tempo with the local weather disaster and different environmental challenges. How uncommon and how necessary to check!

Pictured: Curaçao’s thriving underwater life.

Curaçao’s authorities, companies, and persons are keen to interact with this new endeavor. They belief that PROTEUS™ will kickstart the native blue economic system on the island and create new jobs and alternatives for ocean safety and financial sustainability.

“Our authorities has been working with the PROTEUS™ staff, and we imagine it’s going to put Curaçao in another way on the map,” Muryad de Bruin, the Counterpart Director at Curaçao Vacationer Board, informed me. “Having that undertaking right here in Curaçao is a really distinctive factor. It’s very stunning, and it’s going to add to our sustainable growth on the island when it comes to tourism and our economic system. It’s a fantastic factor.”

Awe and Surprise

On our dive day, we explored Klein Curaçao, one in every of the island’s most well-known dive websites. I watched, with delight, as Cousteau darted about the reef with the eagerness and pleasure of a brand new diver. Regardless of diving since he was 4 years outdated and amassing 1,000s of dives in the world’s most unimaginable oceans, Cousteau nonetheless eagerly identified a lazy scorpionfish (Scorpaena plumieri) to me, resting in a sponge.

Pictured: Tiffany Duong and Fabien Cousteau put together for a dive on Sandals Royal Curaçao’s customized Newton Dive Boat.

Huh, Fabien Cousteau is declaring reef fish to me like several excited dive information would. How cool, I assumed to myself, as he made certain I noticed our little venomous buddy. He’s nonetheless bought his sense of surprise, even in spite of everything these dives. He’s nonetheless fascinated by the tiniest fish, and loves to point out individuals what he finds. That’s so superior.

Persevering with to float round the level, I watched Cousteau once more linger over one thing cool on the reef – although this time tall constructions instantly caught my eye. Wait, is that … I do know that form. Pillar coral – and alive! So alive!

Pictured: Scuba divers observe Curaçao’s thriving pillar coral.

Pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindricus) is a tough coral discovered that was as soon as widespread and plentiful on many western Atlantic and Caribbean reefs. Nonetheless, local weather change, environmental stressors, and stony coral tissue loss illness (STCLD) have killed a lot of it and threaten their continued survival. The species is now on the brink of extinction. In truth, in the Florida Keys (the place I dwell), it’s so dangerous, I assumed I’d by no means see dwell pillar coral once more in my life.

And but, there was Fabien Cousteau, gazing an enormous colony, proper off Klein Curaçao! I used to be so amazed, I nearly forgot I used to be underwater. I swam over simply in time for Cousteau to offer me a understanding nod. Then, it was my flip to stare at this stunning coral.

Picture Credit: Tiffany Duong

Pillars are coated in coral polyps that make them look “fuzzy” generally. They sway in the ocean currents, and it’s mesmerizing to observe them. I stayed floating there, attempting to immortalize their picture in my thoughts, till the remainder of the group was getting tiny in entrance of me. I begrudgingly left the pillar coral to catch up, solely to find a second and even third massive colony only a bit additional. What is that this magical place?!, I assumed.

Again on the boat, I shared my shock and pleasure about seeing dwell and thriving pillar corals. “They’re actually one thing, aren’t they,” Cousteau smiled again. They certain are.

The Slicing-Fringe of Exploration

For our second dive, we toured the potential website for PROTEUS™. Whereas building hasn’t began, it was thrilling to think about what it’s going to appear like.

Pictured: A PROTEUS Rendering

For me, scuba diving and the ocean are usually actually “analog” actions; I absorb the calm, take a look at some fish, and simply take pleasure in the simplicity of the underwater world. In distinction, PROTEUS™ will likely be something however analog; as an alternative, “The undertaking will likely be half of a bigger platform made up of a community and ecosystem that’s alive. People, expertise, robots, and the marine atmosphere will all be working collectively at PROTEUS™,” the staff’s robotics lead Dr. Mark Patterson tells me.

So, what precisely is deliberate? Listed here are just a few of my favourite info about this futuristic hub:

• An ocean expertise ecosystem
• Sustainable, nature-inspired design
• Modular performance to maximise collaboration alternatives
• Media, streaming, and academic outreach capabilities inbuilt
• Ocean monitoring administration instruments
• Community of different undersea habitats
• Capability to dwell and work underwater 24/7!!!

Briefly, this facility will likely be the slicing fringe of exploration, ocean analysis, and dwelling in excessive environments. The staff described how the facility and close by ecosystems could be used to coach NASA astronauts like Parazynski in an underwater facsimile of outer area. Then, the built-in studio may very well be used to real-time share analysis, discoveries, and academic assets with the world.

“There will likely be simulation environments the place astronauts will have the ability to follow the sandy ground duties that they’ll carry out on the moon or maybe, in the future, on Mars,” Parazynski defined. “There will likely be alternatives to check out payloads and different life assist tools for the Worldwide Area Station – check them out in an atmosphere that’s very accessible and, as soon as they’ve been vetted, they are often launched into area.”

Pictured: PROTEUS staff members and Sandals Royal Curaçao dive store staff members.

Embracing the Future

As we pulled again into the dock, everybody on the staff was high-fiving, hugging, and taking selfies – celebrating the profitable deployment of extra ocean sensors for his or her world community. It was an superior second to be part of, and one which wouldn’t have been potential with out the assist and hospitality of Sandals Royal Curaçao.

Pictured: Sandals Royal Curaçao