Devices used to sample the concentrations of particulates and compounds of the SML include a glass fabric, metal mesh screens, and other hydrophobic surfaces.  These are placed on a rotating cylinder which collects surface samples as it rotates on top of the ocean surface.
The glass plate sampler is commonly used. It was first described in 1972 by Harvey and Burzell as a simple but effective method of collecting small sea surface microlayer samples. A clean glass plate is immersed vertically into the water and then withdrawn in a controlled manner. Harvey and Burzell used a plate  which was 20 cm square and 4 mm thick. They withdrew it from the sea at the rate of 20 cm per second. Typically the uppermost 20–150 µm of the surface microlayer adheres to the plate as it is withdrawn. The sample is then wiped from both sides of the plate into a sampling vial.
For a plate of the size used by Harvey and Burzel, the resulting sample volumes are between about 3 and 12 cubic centimetres. The sampled SML thickness h in micrometres is given by:
where V is the sample volume in cm, A is the total immersed plate area of both sides in cm, and N is the number of times the sample was dipped.