Ten-Person Raft

Students in the small boat safety class at WHOI form a raft for their instructor, Joseph Mokry of Ocean Rescue Systems. The students are wearing survival suits designed to keep them dry, warm, and afloat in the event of an accident at sea. Mokry was demonstrating that the suits are so buoyant that a small group of people wearing them can easily support a person who has no suit—which could save a life, as New England waters are so cold that immersion will quickly overwhelm an unprotected person. Students took the class to qualify to work aboard vessels in WHOI’s small boat fleet used extensively by the Coastal Ocean Institute.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)