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Noise Maker

Boatswain Jim McGill (left) of the WHOI-operated research vessel Oceanus assists scientists from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Penn State University as they deploy a towed, mid-range sound source in the Malta Channel. In May 2007, Oceanus was in engaged in joint ship operations with the European Union’s research ship Alliance in the Mediterranean Sea. Researchers were conducting studies of the acoustics of the region—that is, how sound waves travel through the layers of water and reflect off the seafloor. (Photo by Patrick Rowe, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)