Picture pages

This is the University of Miami's state-of-the-art Research Vessel Walton Smith. We deployed the MOCNESS and worked from the stern back on the left of the picture.

Here is Cedric piloting the MOCNESS as it fishes to depths of 330 feet. On these screens, Cedric can open and close the 10 nets and can monitor water conditions from sensors on the boat and the net. There is also video feed of the back deck of the boat so he can oversee net deployment and retrieval. Some of the cooler features of this display include providing real-time data on how deep the net is, it's position in the water and how much water has passed through the net.

Here is the MOCNESS. The MOC-1 is on the left of the frame and the MOC-4 on the right. The grey nets of the MOC-1 are finer mesh to allow capture of tiny plankton, while the black nets of the MOC-4 are larger mesh to capture small fish larvae but exclude the tiny plankon. To the left, is the cylindrical CTD (conductivity, depth, temperature) unit. This was deployed to capture the tiniest plankton (microplankton) and to collect water quality information such as chlorophyll content.

Here you can see 2 of the cod-end collection buckets on nets 3 and 4 of the MOC-1. It was job to rinse down each net and collect the plankton in the cod-end where it was then preserved in alcohol for later identification of the plankton.

Here is the plankton...tiny...

This has got to be one of the coolest things I have yet to see as a marine biologist! A larval sailfish!!! My father-in-law, Tony, caught one of these (but much larger!) in Key West a few months ago. We saw quite a few in our samples...

This was a species of filefish that we caught. Not a larva, but pretty neat nonetheless...

Thanks for an incredible trip Cedric and Joel! I'll be back next year!!!


This is the University of Miami's state-of-the-art Research Vessel Walton Smith. We deployed the MOCNESS and worked from the stern back on the left of the picture.

Here is Cedric piloting the MOCNESS as it fishes to depths of 330 feet. On these screens, Cedric can open and close the 10 nets and can monitor water conditions from sensors on the boat and the net. There is also video feed of the back deck of the boat so he can oversee net deployment and retrieval. Some of the cooler features of this display include providing real-time data on how deep the net is, it's position in the water and how much water has passed through the net.	Here is the MOCNESS. The MOC-1 is on the left of the frame and the MOC-4 on the right. The grey nets of the MOC-1 are finer mesh to allow capture of tiny plankton, while the black nets of the MOC-4 are larger mesh to capture small fish larvae but exclude the tiny plankon. To the left, is the cylindrical CTD (conductivity, depth, temperature) unit. This was deployed to capture the tiniest plankton (microplankton) and to collect water quality information such as chlorophyll content.

Here you can see 2 of the cod-end collection buckets on nets 3 and 4 of the MOC-1. It was job to rinse down each net and collect the plankton in the cod-end where it was then preserved in alcohol for later identification of the plankton.	Here is the plankton...tiny...

This has got to be one of the coolest things I have yet to see as a marine biologist! A larval sailfish!!! My father-in-law, Tony, caught one of these (but much larger!) in Key West a few months ago. We saw quite a few in our samples...	This was a species of filefish that we caught. Not a larva, but pretty neat nonetheless...