The University of California-Berkeley is awarded a grant to acquire a 7.6m Outer Reef Research Boat for the UC Berkeley Richard R Gump South Pacific Research Station. The vessel will provide access to field sites for research and instructional programs in tropical marine and terrestrial biodiversity, evolutionary biology, conservation biology, and Pacific archeology. The reefs of Moorea are among the best studied in the world, as a result of a long history of research initiated by French scientists and involving other researchers internationally, including a growing involvement from the US. This project will provide field transport for a diverse group of researchers and their students, including a recently NSF-funded LTER, as well NSF-funded research in marine ecology, and terrestrial biodiversity, and evolutionary biology.
