DEEP-SEA BENTHIC SAMPLING WITH THE GOMEX BOX CORER

The GOMEX box corer has been used extensively for over a decade in the Gulf of Mexico, but the details of its construction and use have heretofore not been published. The advantages of the GOMEX corer accrue from its tripping and closing mechanisms, as well as its modest weight and size. It is comparatively easy to use, safe in rough seas, and modest in cost compared to the cumbersome but widely accepted USNEL spade corer. Comparison of macrofaunal densities in the Norwegian and the Greenland Seas, with data from the same areas with the USNEL corer, suggests that GOMEX sample quality surpasses other quantitative samplers now in use by deep-sea biologists. Success frequencies appeared to be related to the depth to which the sediment could be penetrated-a function of sediment water content (porosity) and grain size-rather than water depth or sea state.