Oceanographic equipment manufacturer Ocean Scientific International Ltd (OSIL) has supplied 3 Marine Snow Catchers to a Norwegian institute for use in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica on a 5-month research cruise.
Marine Snow Catchers are large volume water samplers with separable top and bottom sections that allow researchers to collect and characterise suspended and sinking particles in the water column.
According to OSIL, this provides a greater understanding of the export processes of the oceanic organic carbon cycle (removing carbon from the upper ocean), and can help to predict how these processes may change in the future.
The design of the OSIL Marine Snow Catchers has been subtly altered, guided by user feedback, with the intention of making them easier to operate in extreme conditions.