David Bowden, NIWA
AB Bryce Bennett deploys a ‘Bongo’ zooplankton net. This frame holds a pair of fine-meshed plankton nets (200μ), and is shaped like a set of bongo drums. The nets were designed this way to avoid having a bridle in front of the net mouth. While plankton are small critters, they can detect the pressure wave generated by a bridle and quite easily escape. This design decreases their ability to see the net coming, and increases our chance of catching them, particularly euphausiids (krill). Today we deployed the Bongos to collect plankton samples from 200 m deep all the way back up to the surface.