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Sentry Finds New Coral in the Gulf

The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry is recovered to NOAA vessel McArthur II during a cruise to the Gulf of Mexico in May 2011. The goal of the cruise was to look for deepwater coral communities that may have been impacted by the 2010 Gulf oil spill. During the trip, Sentry spent nearly 250 hours in the water, including its longest to date—a 36-hour mission, and captured 68,000 photos of the ocean bottom. The information helped WHOI biologist Tim Shank and his colleagues identify seven new coral sites that they will investigate further with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in October.(Photo by Walter Cho, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)