Carin Ashjian studies tiny animals in the Arctic Ocean. These zooplankton are the vital link in the food chain between the plant phytoplankton, which harvest the suns energy and turn it into food, and the larger animals of the Arctic: the sea birds, fish and baleen whales. To understand their distributions and contribution to Arctic life, she catches them in nets that she tows through the water. She then looks at them under the microscope, identifying the species and revealing a miniature world in the northern waters.