Benthic Core Sampling

Additional weights can be added to the corer to increase sediment penetration.

K-B corer being deployed with extra weights.

Inexpensive Core-catchers

Core-catchers are frequently lost or destroyed when trying to take cores from hard clayey sediments. This can create serious problems when working in remote locations where obtaining a replacement core-catcher may be impossible. As a result of these issues, Ocean Ecology designed a quick (takes less than 10 minutes) and inexpensive (uses yogurt containers) method to create new core-catchers. The finished product is shown below.

Core-catcher cut from a yogurt container.

Core-catcher in position in core tube.

Different materials can be used (e.g., plastic, thin sheet metal) to create catchers with different degrees of springiness. A template for creating the core-catcher is given in this pdf file.