9532001 McDuff The R/V THOMPSON has a schedule of 248 operational days in 1996 of which 164 are in support of NSF-sponsored programs. The THOMPSON has been supporting the JGOFS program in the Indian Ocean for the past 15 months. This program will finish in January 1996. The vessel will than transit to do a MGG program off south Africa, from there it transits to do a physical oceanography program in the south Pacific. After several State graduate student training cruises out of Seattle the vessel will support a MGG mapping cruise in the northwest Pacific. The THOMPSON will end the year doing a maintenance period following an extensive schedule in a remote area. The R/V BARNES schedule for 1996 is for a total of 102 days of which 75 operational days are in support of NSF-sponsored programs. The NSF days include a 34 day trip to the Columbia River (Oregon) for the second year. The remainder of the work is in Puget Sound, Lake Washington and one two-week cruise in the Canadian San Juan Islands. The THOMPSON and BARNES are part of a fleet of ships used by the National Science Foundation in support of marine science research. Most oceanographic projects require highly specialized equipment permanently installed on the vessel, thus the necessity for specialized ships. These vessels do not operate in the same mode as general cargo/fishing vessels, as a result NSF supports the operation of a variety of vessels specifically dedicated to oceanographic research that are operated by universities and institutions around the country. ***
