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A Quick Change by the Pit Crew

WHOI technicians Casey Machado and Bob McCabe prepare the new hybrid remotely operated vehicle (HROV) for deployment with its tool sled during a test cruise off Hawaii in November 2007.  Use of the tool sled allows gathering samples or doing work in very deep water. McCabe (right) is adjusting a video camera that allows shipboard operators to view the vehicle’s work area while it is on the seafloor, while Machado plugs in some connectors. The vehicle, dubbed Nereus, can be switched between this tethered, remotely operated vehicle mode for closeup sampling and an untethered autonomous mode for broad surveys.
(Photo by Robert Elder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)