Proposal Number: 1219431 Institution: San Jose State University, Moss Landing Marine Labs PI: S. Lamerdin Co-PI: J. Harvey
The proposal requests four Shipboard Scientific Support Equipment (SSSE) items for the San Jose State University, Moss Landing Marine Labs (MLML) for use aboard the R/V POINT SUR; namely a new global distress communication suite (GMDSS), a forward-looking sonar, an oily water separator, and a night vision thermal imaging camera. These items will either allow the vessel to meet regulatory requirements or enhance operational safety; particularly for the planned Antarctic deployment.
Broader Impacts: The R/V POINT SUR supports federally-funded scientific research in the Pacific Northwest in order to expand human knowledge of the ocean environment. During operations, the vessel routinely exposes graduate and undergraduate students to seagoing oceanography. Pubic outreach is also achieved through the State?s Center for Integrative Coastal Observation, Research and Education program (CI-CORE) and the Alliance for Coastal Technologies program (ACT), real-time satellite connectivity from ship to shore, and open house events. The POINT SUR is scheduled to complete over 60 NSF sponsored days in 2012.
The Major Goal of this funding was to provide backup navigation,and communication and safety equipment for the Research Vessel Point Sur. These funds allowed the purchase of: Forward Looking Sonar to enhance ice navigation safety, a Global Marine and Distress Safety System (GMDSS) to enhance safety and communications capabilities, an Oily Water Separator (OWS) allowing the R/V Point Sur to operate for longer periods of time in protected waters, and a Night Vision Camera to allow for early detection of icebergs and other poorly lit hazards to navigation. By every measure, this Antarctic voyage was fantastically successful, supporting novel science at a fraction of the cost of other commonly used vessels. This work was an augmentation of the ship time normally available and included sampling for The Long Term Ecological Research(LTER) penguin and whale observations. The scientists tagged more whales during that period than in any other period from larger and more intrusive ships. They even ran out of tags; which is a testament to their success. During that time Point Sur also supported geological observations as well as a diving cruise. Other, larger, vessel might have done the same expedition at the expense of other projects and at a considerably higher day rate. Point Sur was able to accomplish the task, and some might argue significantly better in some areas, for example the whale tagging, at a lower cost even taking into account the transit to and from MLML and some one-time costs that help prepare the vessel for the trip. The use of an RCRV provided greater access to sites by the scientific party and afforded the opportunity to accomplish work that had been deferred due to lack of available ship-time The transit afforded the opportunity to recover OBSs off Chile and to conduct another cruise in the Gulf of California at a significant savings over other vessels.
