Vessel, sampling from oceanographic research

Sampling from Oceanographic Research Vessel. In sampling from oceanographic vessels, surface samples were taken with a bucket, as was done from tankers. Samples were taken from the windward side after the vessel had left a station and was imder way at 2-3 knots. 

Open Ocean Mercury Determinations. In our initial studies concerned with the marine geochemistry of mercury, we obtained open ocean smrface samples by hand from a small work boat away from any adverse influence of the oceanographic research vessel. The concentrations of mercury in the open-ocean surface waters (western Sargasso Sea) were small (ca. 10 ng/1.) and rather imiformly distributed (26). However, to collect seawater to determine the concentrations of mercury at other depths, we needed an artifact-free sampling procedure. 

For recording vertical profiles of basic hydrochemical pararmeters in the sea (such as salinity, pH, oxygen and nutrient concentrations), water samples from different depths should be taken quasi-synchronously. On a number of ships, the famous Nansen bottle (Fig. 1-4) introduced more than 70 years ago (Knudsen, 1923,1929) is still part of standard oceanographic equipment. Even on modem research vessels it is often carried for comparison purposes and as a back-up. 

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