Buoy and instrument recovery
Today we pulled out last year's Stratus buoy out of the water. The buoy is large and requires many hands and a crane to lift it onto the ship. It has been in the water for one year with a whole chain of instruments underneath it. These instruments record ocean properties like conductivity (salinity), temperature, ocean currents, and pressure. The only way to get the information is get them out of the water. Of course, after one year in the ocean, they are covered in sea creatures! These particular creatures, called Gooseneck Barnacles, cover every inch of the instruments and must be scraped off by hand to prevent damage to the instruments.
Once they have been cleaned, the instruments are taken to the laboratory and the data are recovered. There will be many scientists who use the measurements collected on these buoys so all the hard work is greatly appreciated!
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