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Thursday, September 16, 2010

MOCNESS Finds in the Deep Gulf!

Nature Blog Article, Sept. 16, 2010


"The Torres team began its work trawling the MOCNESS and Tucker nets at a spot poetically named Standard Station, about 22 hours out from our starting point in St. Petersburg, Florida. This is just a deep spot where USF and other researchers have been doing oceanographic work for 25 years or so, meaning good records to compare against."
"The Torres team was out to study mainly the mesopelagic midwaters, 650 to 3,300 feet down. Torres has been studying these depths for decades, and it's where the deep oil plumes were found, so it was a logical target. GLIMPSES OF THE DEEP The main tool used on last week's expedition is called a MOCNESS, or Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sampling System. This is a roughly 6-foot by 12-foot metal frame with about 1,000 pounds of weight on the bottom to keep it relatively vertical when dragged behind a ship. Bars drop down the frame to control separate nets so that each is open only at a specific depth."

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