Homo sapiens and the emergency suit

When doing underwater robotics and marine biology related field work, you have to expect to spend some time in a boat. The boat in question during this period of field work, is not the biggest boat you could have found on Svalbard. The boat we were using was a small, open boat, with room for seven organisms of the species Homo sapiens and some equipment. The individuals in question are not of a marine species, but rather a terrestrial one. This calls for some extra gear for survival if one would fall into the water. The extra gear used for increased hope of survival, is called an emergency suit. The suit itself, when not put on an individual, looks harmless enough. The orange colour is maybe not the colour Homo sapiens would wear to go out and look for a mate during Saturday evenings, but it is functional when it comes to spotting the individual who has fallen into the water – after which mating might still occur.

Survival suit gang

Ready to survive. Photo: Marthe Austad

Text: Sverre Julian Hekmersen Håpnes, June Jakobsen, Sander Verbiest

 

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