For routine sampling of the infauna of the sea bottom an apparatus is required which is simple, easily handled, and which can give samples of consistent volume from different types of bottom and in varying weather conditions.

The Petersen sampler and its modification, the van Veen, are simple and easily handled and give reasonably consistent samples from some types of soil. But on hard ground they are less satisfactory, and in rough weather they tend either to land unevenly on the bottom, thereby taking smaller samples of variable volume, or to release in mid-water with the rolling of the ship, so that no sample is taken.