The Van Veen grab sampler is an instrument to sample sediment in water environments. Usually it is a clamshell bucket made of stainless steel. Up to 20 cm deep samples of roughly 0.1 m2 can be extracted with this instrument. It can be light-weight (roughly 5 kg) and low-tech. The smallest version even fits into hand luggage. The sampler[1] was invented by Johan van Veen (a Dutch engineer) in 1933.
A draw-back of the use of this sampler is that it tends to disturb the sediments more than a box corer does.
- ^ Van Veen, Johan (1936). Onderzoekingen in de hoofden in verband met de gesteldheid van de Nederlandsche kust [Research in the Dover Street in relation to the status of the Dutch coast] (in Dutch). Den Haag: Algemene Landsdrukkerij. p. 165.