Image

Stretch Test

WHOI mooring specialists routinely test mooring components before deploying them in the ocean. In July, mooring engineers Jeff Pietro and Jim Ryder tested one component—an ultra-stretchy rubber hose, sometimes called a “gumby hose,” which has electrical conductors embedded in the hose wall to carry data. Pietro shackled the hundred-foot hose to an anchor, while Ryder guided the hose as a crane lifted it, pulling it to 180 feet, nearly twice its length. This hose will be used for the Coastal Surface Mooring, part of the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)