A pump-sampler as a method of collecting plankton and its preliminary operation

A pump-sampler was designed to study the distribution of marine plankton and its possible relationship with the temperature and salinity of the water. Sea water was pumped up through a 2 inch diameter hose and plankton contained in it was collected on a filter cup (2 inches in diameter, 139 meshes/inch) without being damaged. The filter cup, when clogged by plankton organisms, was washed by spraying with about 100 cu. cm of water. The differences between two continuous with an interval of more than 3–4 seconds could be detected.A preliminary operation along a 2.82 km course in Maizuru Bay was carried out simultaneously with temperature-salinity measurements at sampling intervals of 30 m. Temperature was measured by a thermistor resistance thermometer, and salinity was measured by a salinometer with a subsample of water which was collected from an additional opening of the pump-sampler. The temperature-salinity record showed that four zones of water were characterized.It was found that wide variation of plankton counts indicated dense concentrations of particular species or group of species, and on the mesoscale it was possible to examine the size of the aggregation.