On a sunny day in a shipyard in Houma, a group of scientists gather on the deck of a ship, finally able to see the vessel they have waited years for. Kristin Beem, marine science technical director at Oregon State University, is giving a tour. The ship is not yet finished, but she tells them it will be loaded with the best technology on the market.
“We have also an EK80 system, so that is a fishery sonar,” she says. “So you can visualize the different schools of fish.”
Eventually, this brand new research vessel will sail off the coast of Oregon, collecting data for oceanographic and coastal research. Another will be based out of Rhode Island to study the Atlantic.
The third ship will sail across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, an area that has been historically under-researched compared to other U.S. coastal waters. This new vessel, which is replacing two ships that are decades old, will help fill gaps in research about marine ecosystems and climate patterns throughout the Gulf.
All three ships are funded by the National Science Foundation and are being built by Oregon State University.
“It was really built with scientists and safety and comfort in mind. We have a lot of different configurable ways of being able to get your science and your research accomplished,” says Beem.
The Houma and Gulfport-based ship is called the Gilbert R. Mason, named after the Mississippi civil rights activist who led protests to desegregate beaches. It is only the third U.S. ocean research ship named after a person of color. The monohull diesel-electric vessel will be 199 feet long and 41 feet wide and carry over a dozen scientists out to sea for up to three weeks at a time.
The vessel will be managed by a new collaboration of 18 universities across the Gulf States, Caribbean and Mexico, called the Gulf-Caribbean Oceanographic Consortium. The collaboration will be led by the University of Southern Mississippi and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.
The ship’s research will include studies of hurricanes and warming waters, says Leila Hamdan, associate vice president for research at the University of Southern Mississippi.
“These environments, they're really on the forefront of the impacts of climate change,” she says, “and so that is going to be a big mission of the ship.”
Hamdan says the ship’s mapping equipment is especially exciting. Because that equipment is built into the ship, researchers will have the ability to map the seafloor during every mission, making progress toward fulfilling a goal set by the federal government to map 100% of U.S. waters.
“Understanding what’s down there, it helps us understand what habitats are there,” she says. “Knowing new habitats helps us understand new species.”
That’s important for not only understanding the effects of climate change, but also supporting fisheries and advancing pharmaceutical science, says Hamdan.
Nowhere is that research more critical than in the Gulf of Mexico, which has been understudied for years, according to Robert Twilley, an oceanography professor and vice president of research and economic development at Louisiana State University.
“For some reason, we just are the forgotten coast,” he says.
Twilley says scientists studying the Gulf have limited access to large research infrastructure, including ships like the Gilbert R. Mason.
That is despite the Gulf’s vital role for major U.S. industries, such as oil and gas and fishing. There is also much to learn about its connection to the world’s seventh largest river delta, the Mississippi, especially with nitrate pollution flowing downstream and contributing to the Gulf’s hypoxic zone, a problem that Louisiana State University will research on the new vessel.
Researchers having access to the new ship will also further the work that was done after the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, when the Gulf Research Initiative was formed. The program lasted 10 years and helped advance research in the Gulf. Twilley says the launch of a new research vessel that can build on what the initiative uncovered is a good sign that the Gulf of Mexico is finally getting the scientific attention it deserves.
“I think the National Science Foundation investment in these ships recognizes the importance of the Gulf of Mexico,” says Twilley, “so maybe what you're seeing with these investments is turning the needle.”
The Gilbert R. Mason is still under construction, but will be launched sometime next year.
