Ann Arbor, MI ¯ Two new research vessels being built for the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center are expected to help strengthen the agency's research on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
The boats are due to be completed in September 2011. They will replace the two oldest research vessels in the agency's Great Lakes fleet: The Sandusky, Ohio-based R/V Musky II and the Oswego, N.Y.-based R/V Kaho.
"The old vessels limited our ability to collect information near the shoreline," said Russell Strach, director of the Ann Arbor-based Great Lakes Science Center. "The new vessels will be quieter, smoother."
The new roughly 65-foot vessels will be modern floating laboratories better suited for studying Great Lakes fisheries, Strach said. They will be able to cruise faster than the old boats and navigate shallower water.
Areas of research by the center include fish populations, aquatic habitats and biological processes in the Great Lakes. The center helps monitor invasive species and its data help guide state, federal and tribal fisheries management.
The 45-foot R/V Musky II was built in 1960 and is stationed at the Geological Survey's Lake Erie Biological Station in Sandusky, while the 65-foot R/V Kaho was built in 1961 and is stationed at the Lake Ontario Biological Station in Oswego.
The replacements will go to the Lake Erie and Lake Ontario stations, Strach said, and the old boats will remain in service for about a year overlap afterward before they are sold as surplus or scrapped.
The new vessels will be built by Cleveland-based Great Lakes Towing Co. under an $8.2 million contract funded by federal stimulus money. U.S. Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, were among those who had pushed to find money.
"Upgrading the fleet with safe and efficient vessels will help ensure long-term sustainability of fisheries management in the Great Lakes," Levin said in a statement earlier this year announcing funding had been secured.
The center also would like to replace the 75-foot R/V Grayling in 2013, but funding currently isn't available, Strach said. The boat, built in 1977, is based in the Michigan port of Cheboygan to study Lake Huron.
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