This is the moment we should have trained for

Well folks... it is time to bring up the time lapse camera. First step, position the ship over the drop location, lower a transceiver over the side and send an acoustic code down to 400 m to tell the rig to drop weights.

Seems simple. Except during the long 15 minutes it takes to return to the surface you start to worry, then look frantically, … then desperately hope you have not lost the most expensive piece of equipment on the project.

After some suspense it broke the surface!

Step 2, bring it on board. An easy task when it is calm, not so much when the waves and winds are up. But, our crew performed some nifty crane work and got it safely back on ship.

Exciting to finally see the images. About an hour into deployment our baited kelp tray had attracted a ton of amphipods and other small invertebrates.

It was also fun to watch a piece of kelp drop in beside our control trial and tumble around the tray in a very mysterious, what-is-the-bottom-current-doing kind of way.