MOCNESS Monster

A Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System (MOCNESS) is launched from the research vessel Ronald H. Brown during the Census of Marine Zooplankton in April 2006. The MOCNESS plankton sampler carries anywhere from six to twenty nets, plus electronic sensors for measuring temperature, depth, and salinity.  The nets can be opened and closed independently—by command from the shipboard lab—to sample a specific patch of water. Click here for a movie of the deployment and recovery of MOCNESS. (Photo by Laurence Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)