The former vessel used a 41- foot otter trawl, usually working for 4 hours at depths greater than 4500 m and for 2 hours at shallower depths. The hauls of the"Kurchatov" with a 3-m sledge trawl lasted about one hour. However, the speed over the bottom is not known, and it is also uncertain whether the trawl was actually on the bottom during the whole period. Thus, the quantities por station are not easily comparable. Larger samples P15 g) were obtained only at 12 of the 31"Kurchatov “trawling stations occupied at depths exceeding 1000 m, and a 31"Pillsbury" stations. 10 of which contained no larger samples occurred at all.
The larger samples occurred stations(except a few) in the trough Puerto Rico and Cayman Trenches. and in addition particularly the Yucatan Basin, which is close to the extensive Thalassia areas the adjacent Mexican coast. This occurrence probably reflects sportation by slumping and/or turbidity currents rather than by the 1fing method.