Preparing to Deploy CTD Instrument

Conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) instrument getting ready to be launched. The bag of Styrofoam cups being attached to the side is part of science outreach that Dr. Julie Richey does with elementary school kids. Each kid gets to color a cup with permanent markers and when the cups are sent down to 1100m of depth, the pressure causes them to shrink to about half their normal size. Julie returns the cups to the kids to help them understand what sampling at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is like.