Image

Made to Last

Jim Dunn of WHOI’s Mooring Operations, Engineering, and Field Support Group holds a NOMAD buoy mooring line during a research cruise in the Pacific Ocean in July 2010. The bulky black portion of the line is where two segments of the line are connected to each other via a metal shackle. Plastic-jacketed wire rope is used for the upper 2,000 meters of the line, and nylon rope is used for the deeper portions. The hardware connecting them is wrapped in rubber and tape to keep the nylon from getting fouled on it, which could lead to breakage of the line and loss of the mooring. (Photo by John Kemp, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)