WATER, SEDIMENT, AND ORGANISM SAMPLING SYSTEMS DESIGNED FOR SMALL ROVS

Sampling the marine environment has been accomplished from ship board, occupied submersibles, scuba, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and other platforms. With the increased presence of ROVs used in today's r esearch arena, operators are faced with inadequacies in sampling tools available for conducting scientific research. This is even more preva lent with the Low Cost ROVs (LCROVs), which have inherent limitations not present in occupied submersibles and Larger ROVs. Users of LCROVs have been forced to develop and adapt technologies to conform to the L CROVs' limitations. NOAA's National Undersea Research Center for the N orth Atlantic and Great Lakes (NURC-NAGL), has been. using ROVs to con duct underwater research since 1984 and developing techniques and tech nologies used by LCROVs to expand their research capabilities. At pres ent, NURC-NAGL has three LCROVs; a Minirover MK II, a Phantom 300, and a Phantom S-2 which have been the platforms for sampler development. This paper describes recent additions to the sampling capabilities of NURC-NAGL's ROVs along with a brief discussion of implementation from the 1995 and 1996 research cruises. Possible improvements to these sys tems will also be outlined.