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Bringing in the Catch

Marine biologist Hannes Baumann (far right) from State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook prepares to get a line on a Methot net from the stern of the research vessel Ka’imikai-o-Kanaloa off the northeast coast of Japan in June 2011. Baumann and others were on board the cruise organized by WHOI’s Ken Buesseler to study the spread, fate, and impacts of radiation released from the damaged nuclear power plant at Fukushima. The net was tailored to capture small fish and large plankton (nekton) that are one step on the food chain above phytoplankton and the smallest marine animals and that are, in turn, eaten by larger fish. (Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)