Bering Sea spring

WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian wheels the Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) to the stern of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter and icebreaker Healy in March 2008, preparing to deploy it in the Bering Sea. The VPR “samples” the ocean by collecting images of plankton and particles at different depths. The cruise, was part of a long-term study of the Bering Sea ecosystem as the Arctic warms, including  changes in plankton populations and the implications for migrating bowhead whales and native human populations. Ashjian’s next cruise aboard the Healy will be featured as a Polar Discovery expedition in April 2009. (Photo by Philip Alatalo, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)