FSML: A small nearshore research vessel for the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology

The Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) is the University of Oregon’s marine research and teaching laboratory. OIMB is located in the mouth of the Coos Estuary, 2 km from the open ocean, and offers unparalleled access to diverse and largely undisturbed habitats, and an especially rich flora and fauna. Despite the proximity of OIMB to the outer coast, access to the nearshore open ocean has historically been severely limited by the lack of an appropriate nearshore operations vessel for accessing subtidal habitats close to emergent rocks, reefs, and kelp forests. This capacity award funds an 8 m coastal nearshore operations research vessel which will help OIMB overcome this outer coast access problem. Like OIMB, most coastal marine stations are situated in protected bays or inland waters; the field-based research that gets done at these places is commonly in areas where scientists have the least problems with access, such as salt marshes, intertidal regions, inland waters, bays, and estuaries. There has been relatively little research on the ecology of the nearshore zones (e.g., <100 m depth, ~5 km from shore) of a substantial portion of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem, simply due to a lack of infrastructural vessel capacity and the difficulty of access. The new research vessel will remedy the ongoing challenge to access the nearshore environments of the exposed coast and enhance OIMB's research, teaching and outreach capacity, making important habitats accessible to many more scientists and students. The vessel will be configured for diverse activities, including small remote operated vehicle deployment, SCUBA diving, benthic grabs, drop camera deployment, fishing, CTD casts, deployment of smaller moorings, wildlife surveys, and plankton sampling. The funding for this project will cover the construction of the 8 m vessel, twin outboards, standard rigging and electronics, and a trailer for storage and transportation. This award by the Infrastructure Capacity for Biological Research program within the Division of Biological Infrastructure is jointly supported by Division of Ocean Sciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.