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Moorings and buoys

One of the unsung heroes of oceanography is mooring operations. Currents are ceaselessly moving, plankton constantly bloom, marine traffic is continuously monitored, the sea floor is continually being built—all of it happening over months, years, and decades. In order to collect long-term measurements of these and other processes at work in the ocean, scientists and engineers have devised ways to leave instruments out in the environment. Here Jim Ryder and Jim Dunn of the Mooring Operations group coordinate the recovery of a test mooring off the coast of California. On average the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Mooring Operations Group deploys and recovers 50 moorings and buoys in a year throughout the world’s oceans.(Photo by Will Ostrom, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)