Seeing Under the Sea

A pyramid-shaped multicorer sits on the deck of the R/V Melville off Santa Barbara, California in October 2012. Multicorers collect seafloor sediment samples without disrupting the uppermost sediment layers and the single-celled organisms living in them. On this cruise WHOI geobiologist Joan Bernhard, microbial ecologist Virginia Edgcomb, and geologist Dan Fornari tested a deep-sea camera and strobe system on the multicorer, funded by NSF’s Oceanographic Facilities and Equipment Division. The system sends real-time images of the seafloor to scientists aboard, allowing them to guide the sampler, and collects high-resolution images that are stored in the camera for downloading on recovery.(Photo by Ellen Roosen, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)