Beth, the cable is rather large diameter (see below). It would take a major effort and a ROV or sub or something to attach a cable: the first corer was lost in 70 m (>230 feet or more) of water.

OK, we spent about 22 hours pulling on the stuck corer with up to 10 tons of tension. The ship would move slightly so we would pull at different angles. About an hour ago the corer came up, minus the bottom part of the pipe (core barrel?). It is rather large diameter and heavy-duty and after 22 hours it finally twisted off...sheared right off. I have little to do with this: I site the cores (or, some of them), as part of a small group, but experts do the coring (from Oregon state).

So, the lesson is persistence: they did not give up in trying to get the corer. We would have had to cut the cable if it had not come up by tomorrow morning though. The pipe is not valuable, the corer is, and the sedimentary rock inside the pipe is valuable for science.

We don't know what or if we will core tonight. We will continue with the seismic reflection site survey (IODP) tomorrow. We will not be able to survey the Oak Ridge fault: the lost day cost us that.
Chris