Scientists deploying a Neuston Net from the port side of the forecastle deck on board the Royal Research Ship Discovery (1962) while at sea. This small net was hung in a wooden frame on skis and skimmed over the surface of the sea, collecting organisms from the top two or three centimetres of the water. The photographer is looking aft. This is Slide 44 of Captain Henry P. Bird's lecture titled "Deep Oceans", about his service as Third Officer on board the Discovery from 15 December 1971 to 16 April 1972. The ship was on a Marine Biological Cruise to the seas off Cape Bojador in Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara), off the southern tip of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, around the Cape Verde Islands and along the West African Shelf off Nouakchott in Mauretania. She sailed from Barry on 4 February and returned on 16 April 1972. The lecture consists of 78 slides.