Under the Ice

WHOI engineer Loral O’Hara installs a new shroud over one of the maneuvering thrusters on the Nereid Under Ice (NUI) remotely operated vehicle. NUI is connected to pilots aboard a surface ship via an unarmored 20 km fiber optic tether and provides scientists with high-definition, real-time imagery and other data from beneath ice-covered seas. It was developed with funding by the National Science Foundation and WHOI and successfully completed its first trip this summer, when it navigated beneath undisturbed Arctic ice and revealed a surprisingly high abundance of marine life. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)