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Clean Sweep

It took about 400 gallons of primer and paint to spiffy up two WHOI-operated research vessels, Atlantis and Knorr,  during several weeks of ship maintenance in 2012 in Charleston, South Carolina. The paint keeps the ships looking good, but also prevents corrosion and the growth of barnacles and algae below the waterline. After the ships arrived in drydock, yardworkers removed old paint with power tools, then applied a coat of epoxy primer to the cleaned areas and a full coat of blue paint above the waterline. A second coat of anti-fouling paint was applied just below the waterline, where biofouling causes the most problems.(Photo by Dutch Wegman, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution )