Some Assembly Required

Research assistant Amber York works on the PRIMO vertical profiling vehicle while biologist Scott Gallager calibrates the video plankton recorder (VPR) that will go on the PRIMO system. The Polar Remote Intercative Marine Observatory (PRIMO) will be deployed in January 2009 off Palmer Station, Antarctica. The profiler will rise and fall through the water column twelve times per day to measure the biological productivity and activity, as well as the oceanographic characteristics, of the waters around Antarctica. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)