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Standing Ready

June 1, 2011

Erik Cordes of Temple University (second from left), Tim Shank (WHOI, to right), and principal investigator Chuck Fisher (Penn State University, far right) discuss the day’s dive during a December 2010 expedition to the Gulf of Mexico. The scientists used the deep-diving submarine Alvin (in its hangar, far left) and the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry (background) to investigate deep coral communities in the Gulf and to look for impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Under a lowering sky, shipboard colleagues look on and filmmaker Beatrice Tilman records the moment.(Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)