pool lighting/electrical question

This is the first summer I've been at my new house which has a pretty old above ground pool. The pool has a light which just has a cord that runs into a box of some sort and then a cord with a regular plug coming out of it which gets plugged in. This "box" is all rusted out and falling apart. My question is what does this box do? I didn't know if it was some old type of GFCI. Or is it a transformer or something? Can I just bypass it (i'm guessing probably not)? Is it worth replacing or should I just buy a whole new light?

Here's a pic of it.

thanks
Ryan

That's definitely a transformer. It should be plugging into a GFI outlet or GFI protected circuit.

I'd replace it with new equipment and make sure the GFCI outlet or breaker is in good working order. Otherwise, that should be replace too.

I have an AquaLamp (I think that's what it's called) in my pool and it has a similar box containing a transformer, fuse, and a GFI outlet (inside the box but inaccessible) that I believe is only used to trip the circuit. It is also designed to be plugged into an outlet.

My box was allowing water inside and it slowly rusted most of the components as well. The transformer was still ok but the fuse had broken in half. I replaced the fuse and sealed the box shut with caulking.

I also removed the standard plug from the box and had it hardwired so that I could operate it from a switch inside the house.