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FLATHEAD LAKE — Something alien bubbled up to the surface in Flathead Lake’s Yellow Bay on Tuesday. In the wake of a pontoon boat and a Jet Ski, two safety divers followed a submersible as it ascended from 30 feet below.

The sub, roughly the size of a sedan, glided toward the edge of the bay, where it docked near the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station. Its captain, Hank Pronk of British Columbia, emerged from a hatch and met with biological station research scientist Jim Craft on the dock.

“For the next few days, people who love submarining will be hooking up with the scientists here at the lake,” Craft said.

The Nekton Gamma is one of two subs that will be diving at points around Flathead through Friday, when the public is invited to an open house (see box). They’ll be collecting samples, taking measurements and recording videos at depths that have been out of reach for the scientists at the station. According to Craft, the information compiled by the subs will give him and the rest of the researchers a clearer view of the “physical, chemical and biological” makeup of the lake’s deeper zones.

“They can get a lot deeper than our divers can,” said Craft, who has been at the Flathead Lake Biological Station for 31 years.