Unalaska, AK – This evening, Unalaskans will have a rare chance to peak beneath the surface of the ocean that surrounds us here in the Aleutians. Divers Reid Brewer and Roger Deffendall will be sharing photographs from their recent dive trip to the western Aleutians, a 40-day expedition that took them from Attu Island to Seguam Island.

"It was kind of a voyage of discovery in a place where nobody really had been diving before," said Brewer, a marine biologist with University of Alaska Fairbanks's Marine Advisory Program in Unalaska. "The ecosystem really changes when you get to the Islands of the Four Mountains--it really opens up the visibility, and it allows for photographers to take some amazing pictures."

The trip was part of the state Department of Environmental Conservation's Environmental Protection Agency-funded Environmental Modeling and Assessment Program, which aims to collect baseline data on what lives beneath the surface along the Aleutian Chain.

"This kind of look at our coastlines is a first attempt to figure out what's there," Brewer said. "In theory, they would come back every five or ten years to see if the diversity is changing, or if there are range extensions of the organisms, or to see if there's a complete shift in the ecosystem."

This summer's trip marks the second half of the survey--the half-dozen divers involved in the project made a similar voyage last summer in the eastern Aleutians. They collectively spent about 300 hours underwater at more than 50 sites along the island chain.

Brewer said he hopes that the images and information they've collected will help inform the policy debate over how to manage the oceans surrounding the Aleutians.

"Maybe as some of the fisheries policies and politics come up, people will be a little bit better-versed in what kind of organisms are out there, and how we do truly have an amazing habitat in the Aleutian Islands," he said.

The presentation will be at 7 p.m. this evening at the Museum of the Aleutians, and marks the fiftieth event in the museum's Alaska Marine Issues series. Brewer said the divers also hope to publish their photographs in a coffee table-style book for the Alaska Sea Grant program next winter.