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Bongo Dip

January 19, 2013

Marine science technician Marshal Chaidez signals to a crewmate running a winch from a control room overlooking the fantail of the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy to deploy a set of “bongo nets” over the stern. Normally, the nets are towed behind a moving ship, but chunks of broken ice moving under Healy would quickly destroy the fragile nets. Instead, the icebreaker was held stationary while the nets were lowered 180 feet and pulled back up to gather samples of tiny plants and animals living in the surface of the frigid Bering Sea.(Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)