Collecting ctenophores

Collecting ctenophores can be challenging.  It's easy to severely damage animals while collecting, and for the types of work we do, we must work hard to keep them intact.  We try to collect animals by NOT netting them.  Mnemiopsis leidyi recover from gentle plankton tows, but other species are routinely mortally wounded or outright killed by any plankton tow.  Even so, when at sea, and under most conditions, we must collect by plankton tow; typically this is because of the high freeboard, which makes dipping very difficult and sometimes dangerous. 

Preferred equipment:

Dippers:

Sometimes conditions are so murky we simply cannot see the ctenophores.  Then we use the 'octonet':

On board ship, we use a 200 micron plankton net

When diving we use ziplock bags and screw top jars.