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Wash Up Before Supper

Researchers clean the muck from their sensors at the end of a day in the Waves Over Really Muddy Seafloors Experiment (WormsEx) along the Louisiana coast. Scientists affiliated with WHOI’s PVLab examined how the mud and goo of the seafloor can dissipate the energy of ocean waves in the Gulf of Mexico. But getting answers meant getting gear and people dirty. Diver and student Jared Shwartz (University of Rhode Island) uses a power-washer to clean an acoustic current meter. In the background, from left to right: Bill Boyd puts away a clean mooring part; Steve Elgar (orange shirt) disassembles a mooring; Britt Raubenheimer (red shirt) cleans a small part with a wire brush; Erika Ladoceur coils some lines; and Whit, seeing-eye guide dog and beach bum, is waiting for something fun to happen. (Photo by Levi Gorrell, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)