Hometown: Alexandria, Va.
Age: 53
Years Diving: 33
Favorite Destination: McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Why I’m a DAN Member: “I believe in the safety mission of DAN.”
It is a long way from Belgium, where Michael Lang was raised, to the icy wilderness of Antarctica. But as each journey begins with a single step, Lang’s sojourn began with annual visits to his family’s vacation home in Italy. Living there each summer brought young Michael in geographic proximity to Monaco and, more specifically, Monaco’s Oceanographic Museum. His childhood memories are of the aquariums and exhibits within, never imagining they would spark a life’s fascination with marine biology and a longtime association with one of the world’s most venerable museum organizations, the Smithsonian Institution.
Lang later moved to the United States and attended Humboldt State University and San Diego State University, majoring in marine biology. It was during these years he had an epiphany, the crystalline realization that if he was ever really to understand the organisms he was studying in school, he had to see and observe them in their natural habitat. In his mind, studying marine biology out of the water was the philosophical equivalent of keeping one’s eyes down in a tropical rainforest. If he, as a scientist, were to walk along the ground and see only tree trunks, he’d miss the essence of the forest’s biodiversity amid the canopy. In Lang’s case, his “forest” was the diverse marine ecosystem of the California kelp community.
He took scientific diving and instructor courses at San Diego State and became the biology department’s marine invertebrate collector and curator. It required Lang to spend a great deal of time in his underwater forest, diving three days a week in the kelp ecosystem off San Diego, keeping long-term records of his observations and collecting live organisms to be used in the classroom to demonstrate the diversity and evolution of kelp species.
Upon graduation, Lang became increasingly involved in the science of dive physiology through his work with the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS), eventually becoming its president. Some of his early experience and research in scientific diving was used in the evaluation of dive computers, in particular ascent rates and repetitive diving control in a time when there simply wasn’t a body of knowledge available yet.
In 1989 the Smithsonian began a search for a scientific diving officer to oversee their biodiversity research programs in the South Pacific and the Caribbean. Lang was the successful applicant and began what has become a two-decade affiliation with the institution.
However, Lang is perhaps best known for his significant contributions to Antarctic science. He took his first trip there in 1986, concentrating on Antarctic krill and the creatures that depend on it as a food source. This tied closely with his affinity for, and immersion in, the science of scuba physiology. By 1991 he was studying the coldwater thermal effects on decompression sickness (DCS). At the time there was very little data on what it meant to be a diver under the ice. In what circumstances did regulators freeze? How did the very cold water affect DCS exposure? Those were the kinds of issues that engaged him, and his research and experience were ongoing. A decade later he was given the significant responsibility of being the diving safety officer for the National Science Foundation. In this capacity, any scientist planning work in the region spent time with Lang to become proficient in drysuit and ice-diving techniques as well as to become generally prepared for the significant hazards of one of the earth’s most hostile marine environments.
Neither the hostile environment nor the scientist in Lang dampens his almost childlike enthusiasm for the natural beauty of a subaquatic world with 800-foot visibility. Although when studying the biological adaptations of benthic marine invertebrates, such unimaginable water clarity is perhaps squandered; much of the research focuses on very small sections of the underwater tableau at a time.
But Lang’s interest goes beyond any specific area of study. For example, he’s fascinated by the resident Weddell seal. They’re a subject of keen physiological interest to Lang because of their extraordinary deep-dive capabilities. Dive recorders have shown Weddell seals to dive to 2,000 feet for 80 minutes.
Not surprisingly, there is also a conservation aspect to the research Lang does in Antarctica. On Dec. 1, 1959, the Antarctic Treaty set aside the whole continent “with the interests of science and the progress of all mankind.” Signed by 47 nations, this agreement protects something seemingly wild and distant, but the earth is a surprisingly interconnected ecosystem. In December 2009, the Smithsonian Institution hosted the Antarctic Treaty Summit to highlight lessons learned in 50 years of international governance. Through his work and the profound influence of the Smithsonian, Lang continues to champion the preservation of Antarctica for science and peaceful, nonexploitative pursuits.
“The diving industry as a whole has taken the plight of the coral reef to heart,” Lang observes. “We have organizations like NOAA creating National Marine Sanctuaries to protect unique and biologically significant marine ecosystems. Yet, we are increasingly aware that the poles as a global ecosystem need protection, too. Look at the ocean currents on a world map, and you’ll see sources of pollution in the Southern Ocean end up in the Bering Strait and Svalbard.
“We have many issues beyond global warming,” Lang continues. “When you consider that 70 percent of the U.S. population lives within 200 miles of a coastline, this sheer mass of civilization creates a runoff of sediment and pollution. Add to that the problem of overfishing of bluefin tuna, or take a fish like the Chilean sea bass. Coldwater species are slow growing and take [a long time] to achieve sexual maturity for reproduction. That fish on the end of the line might be 50 years old, and to take it relentlessly for food has brought the species to the edge of collapse. Sustainability of the seafood fishery is one of mankind’s overarching concerns — or it should be anyway.”
But for all his concerns about the Antarctic environment, Lang still has that childlike enthusiasm when he dons his drysuit and peers beneath the ice to see 800 feet into a world bathed eerily in blue. Though a man of the world, it is there he is most at home.
© Alert Diver — Q2 Spring 2011