Searching seeps

The crew aboard the R/V Atlantis launch the  autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry during a September 2009 cruise to study natural oil and methane seeps at a site about a mile off the coast of Santa Barbara, Ca. WHOI chemist Christopher M. Reddy and David Valentine of UC Santa Barbara hope to learn more about how seeped oil changes once released into the environment and how methane and other chemicals are eaten by natural populations of bacteria.

(Photo by Christopher Reddy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)