PROJECT SUMMARY The Darling Marine Center is the marine laboratory of the University of Maine System. Since 1991, the University has made an unprecedented financial commitment to modernize the facility and to expand teaching and research programs to benefit both University faculty and visiting researchers. Lab and office space for visiting scientists has been increased 5 fold, nearly all of the Center's 16 original building have been renovated or improved, visitor housing has been increased by 65%, a new dining hall has been built, a shoreside Dive & Field Staging Building has been erected to support SCUBA work, two additional classrooms have been constructed including a new shoreside Visiting Investigator/Classroom building, and the research library has been expanded. The inauguration of a formal Visiting Investigation program in 1991 has resulted in an unexpected surge of visitors that is increasing annually. A concerted effort has been made to involve visitors in planning future facility improvements and, based on their evaluations, the University has targeted three areas of facility weaknesses at the Darling Center, two of which are the focus of this proposal: 1) additional improvements to the small vessel operation and 2) the upgrade of research instrumentation for visitors. This project will support the purchase of a 24' research vessel with enclosed cabin space for conducting all-weather research and teaching activities, as will the purchase of several research instruments that are most frequently requested by visiting investigators will be supported. The University will provide no funds to construct a shoreside 40 x 50' x 20' Vessel Operations building that will be used for repair, maintenance and storage of the Center's boat fleet.
