pool lighting/electrical question

[ryanm]

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