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Frozen Moment

February 16, 2015

Deck crew of the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy maneuver a plankton net into the waters of the Chukchi Sea during a cruise led by WHOI oceanographer Bob Pickart in May 2014. The goal of the Arctic Spring cruise was to study the surprisingly large blooms of phytoplankton beneath the sea ice first observed in 2011, at a time of year when thick ice cover was thought to prevent the tiny marine plants and algae from thriving. (Photo by Amanda Kowalski, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)