Photos

Dean Bumpus (1912-2002) orchestrated a program from 1956 to 1972 to track surface and bottom currents in the western North Atlantic using drift bottles. More than 300,000 drift bottles with return-to-sender notes were released by ships and planes along the U.S. East Coast at various “Point A’s.” About 10 percent were returned, providing Point B’s. Bumpus also deployed more than 75,000 seabed drifters, with a 19 percent return rate. (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute)