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The First of Many

Today, WHOI’s mooring and instrument engineers are world-renowned for their expertise in designing and deploying deep-sea mooring arrays. That expertise dates back more than 50 years, when researchers first attempted the difficult and risky job of deploying moorings.  Mooring #001 was deployed in 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) of water on December 11, 1960. It was part of an ambitious project spearheaded by WHOI Physical Oceanographer Bill Richardson to set 39 buoys in a line from Woods Hole to Bermuda. Only 18 moorings were recovered with little or no damage. Mooring #001 was one of them; it survived 79 days at sea.(Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)