The remotely operated vehicle ROV PHOCA is a deep diving platform rated for water depths of 3000 meters. The ROV is linked to a surface vessel via an umbilical cable transmitting power (copper wires) and data (3 single-mode glass bers). As standard it comes equipped with still and video cameras and two dierent manipulators providing eyes and hands in the deep. Special emphasis was put on the compatibility of numerous systems with the existing ROV KIEL 6000 to facilitate the use of both systems on various research vessels with a given team of ROV pilots.Besides this, a set of other tools may be added depending on the mission tasks, ranging from simple manipulative tools as chisels and shovels to electrically connected instruments which can send insitu data to the ship through the ROVs network, allowing immediate decisions upon manipulation or sampling strategies.