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Dressing for Work

February 22, 2012

Assistant marine ops coordinator Chad Smith and Julian Schanze, a graduate student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program, help Dive Officer Ed O’Brien into his hardhat diving gear. The three divers were preparing to inspect and clean the propeller on R/V Oceanus at the WHOI dock. O’Brien supervises the WHOI Diving Program, which trains researchers how to dive safely so they can collect specimens, maintain equipment, and directly observe behavior of organisms in the sea. Diving is often the best way to accomplish an oceanographer’s goals, even in frigid water or the open ocean far from a coastline. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)