The University of Minnesota Duluth has been awarded a grant to add a smaller research vessel to the marine facility of the Large Lakes Observatory. The vessel will be a 20' to 24' long aluminum boat with a cabin and a trailer to facilitate near-shore research on the North American Great Lakes as well as research on lakes, rivers and estuaries throughout the upper Midwest. The Large Lakes Observatory's (LLO) marine facility currently houses the R/V Blue Heron, a 78' former Grand Banks fishing trawler outfitted for scientific research which is part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System, the umbrella organization for the U.S. academic fleet. The addition of a smaller vessel will allow the LLO to facilitate the research and educational needs of a broader clientele. The boat will be housed at the LLO marine facility in the Duluth(MN)/Superior(WI) harbor and will have easy access to western Lake Superior and the St. Louis River estuary. Since the vessel will have a trailer, it will be used on all the Great Lakes as well as smaller lakes and rivers throughout the Midwest. Users of the smaller boat will be able to take advantage of the expertise of the crew and marine technical staff of the R/V Blue Heron, as well as the large pool of shared-use equipment that is a part of the marine facility.
The new vessel will be used in a broad array of research in shallow water areas including riverine, estuary and coastal ecosystem monitoring in the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve and studies of contaminates in aquatic systems such as the St. Louis River and Bay Area of Concern. Additionally, researchers will study the inorganic and organic carbon pools and how carbon cycles in aquatic systems, nutrient cycling, especially nitrogen, in the Great Lakes, and the diversity of invasive bacteria and zooplankton in lacustrine and estuarine systems as well as ship ballast waters. The vessel will be used in the mapping of the bathymetry of the lake floor including commercial fishery spawning areas, studies of nearshore fish habitat and spawning, and work on understanding the physical limnology of the Great Lakes. The LLO's larger vessel has often been used as a platform for educational outreach, and the additional of this new vessel will allow classes to explore areas unreachable by the larger boat and will be used in teacher education programs. For more information about the Large Lakes Observatory please go to: www.d.umn.edu/llo/.
