This award to University of Delaware provides support for the acquisition of oceanographic instrumentation to be used on R/V Cape Henlopen, a 120' research vessel operated as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) research fleet. It is anticipated in the proposal that these instruments will also be cross-decked to a new vessel, planned for delivery in late 2005, which will replace R/V Cape Henlopen beginning in 2006. Specifically, support is recommended to acquire meteorological instrumentation, computers and related network hardware and peripherals for a shipboard computer network, fluorometers, and seawater sampling bottles, all for shared-use operation. These acquisitions provide an important upgrade in capabilities for marine scientists using University of Delaware's research vessels in their research during 2005 and future years. ***
