Graduate students from the University of Georgia’s Department of Marine Science gathered at UGA Skidaway Institute of Oceanography on the weekend of May 27 for a program aimed at improving graduate student retention, inclusion, well-being and a sense of belonging.
The marine science graduate students are split between the UGA Skidaway Institute and the main campus in Athens. Given the 250-mile distance between Athens and the Georgia coast, these two groups of students typically only interact during online instruction, webinars, meetings or on an occasional research cruise. They rarely gather in-person in a casual setting.
“It was a really great experience,” said UGA Skidaway Institute assistant professor Sara Rivero-Calle. “Because they are split between the two campuses, many of these students had never met in person. They had worked together remotely on assignments and seen each other through the computer screen, but this was the first time they could relax and enjoy each other’s company in real life.”
A group of students enjoying an evening out.
The event included a guest speaker, Virginia Schutte, who led a workshop on science communication and the best ways for students to market themselves. The students also organized a clean-up of some of the trails on Skidaway Island, utilizing bags from UGA Marine Extension’s trawl-to-trash program.
“The UGA marine science students had a wonderful event supported by the UGA Marine Science Department and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography,” said Frank Mcquarrie, president of the marine sciences graduate student association. “Meeting in person was invaluable, and it reminded us that we are stronger together.”
The program was funded by a $5,000 grant from the UGA Graduate School.
After two years of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, University of Georgia Skidaway Institute scientists participated in the first cruise of their four-year project to study how dust in the atmosphere is deposited in the ocean and how that affects chemical and biological processes there. The team of Daniel Ohnemus and Chris Marsay, along with graduate students Charlotte “Charlie” Kollman and Mariah Ricci, joined the University of Hawaii Research Vessel Kilo Moana on a cruise out of Oahu. They collected samples at the Hawaii Ocean Time-Series Station Aloha – a six-mile wide section of ocean approximately 122 miles from Oahu – where oceanographers from around the world study ocean conditions over long time spans. The cruise was the first of six planned during the four-year project.
Research Vessel Kilo Moana
Ohnemus is one of two chief scientists on the project along with fellow UGA Skidaway Institute researcher Clifton Buck, who did not join this cruise. He called the cruise a success.
“Everything we put in the ocean, we got back, and that’s a good thing in oceanography,” he said. “And also, most importantly, it all worked.”
The overall goal of the project is to look at the rate at which dust is deposited into the ocean and what happens to it once it is in the water column. The chemistry of the ocean can be changed by the introduction and removal of elements, including trace elements which are present in low concentrations. In some cases, these elements are known to be vital to biological processes and ocean food webs. After waiting for two years for the pandemic to ease, the science team still had additional waiting once they arrived in Hawaii. They were required to quarantine in a hotel for six days before being allowed to board the ship.
“We flew in about a week before we were expected on the ship. We got tested multiple times,” Ohnemus said. “We tested at the airport. We got a PCR test mid-quarantine. And we were tested again before boarding the ship.
“We knew we definitely did not have COVID.”
Mariah Ricci, Charlie Kollman and Dan Ohnemus prepare to deploy an instrument package.
“The hardest part is that we were out there for five days and four nights, and all of our research and sampling took place in the last eight hours of the cruise,” Ohnemus said.
For the students Charlie Kollman and Mariah Ricci the cruise was a new experience. It was Ricci’s first research cruise ever. Ironically, she and Ohnemus both took their first cruise on the RV Kilo Moana, only their cruises were 15 years apart.
Dan Ohnemus and Charlie Kollman deploy a package of sensors.
For Kollman, the best part of the cruise was participating in all the work necessary to conduct the science activity from the planning process all the way through to the end and then seeing the fruits of her labor.
“It was a great experience,” she said. “It is really rewarding to see all the different things we had to do like all the mechanical work.
“I think people often think of science as being constantly high value or in the lab doing really complicated stuff, but a lot of times it’s running to Home Depot four times because you don’t have the correct pipe fitting.”
Ohnemus sings the praises of his collaborators at the University of Hawaii. “They are excellent. It was great to be able sail with them after all this time,” he said. “We first wrote the proposal in 2018, and to actually get to sail together four years later was very rewarding and time well spent.”
When the Slocum glider known as NG645 was deployed about 80 miles south of New Orleans on Oct. 10, 2021, it became one of the most closely watched ocean-observing instruments in the Gulf of Mexico. That’s because it was a small robot with a big mission – to investigate features of the Loop Current and Loop Current Eddies in the Gulf as part of the Hurricane Glider Project – then navigate on a mission never attempted by an unmanned glider before.
“Our goal with this project was to deploy a glider in the Gulf of Mexico and then navigate it through the spatially variable currents of the Loop Current and into the Gulf Stream all the way around the bend of Florida up to the coast of South Carolina,” said UGA Skidaway Institute of Oceanography researcher Catherine Edwards, one of the glider team leaders and who was responsible for the glider once it rounded the tip of Florida.
The glider path is shown in red from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina.
The trip was a test to see whether the glider could successfully navigate around Florida and up the East Coast while gaining information about multiple marine systems – all during a single mission. With no propeller or motor, it would have to do so using minimal battery power and only buoyancy to travel.
Slocum gliders, also known as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), are torpedo-shaped underwater robots about six feet long and eight inches in diameter that carry instrument packages to gather data on water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and other ocean parameters, depending on ocean-observation needs. The gliders use buoyancy to move throughout the water column in a vertical yo-yo pattern, taking in water to move down through the water column and expelling water to return to the surface. The wings on the glider then give it lift that allows it to move forward. When the glider surfaces, it sends data to a satellite, which beams it back to scientists in the lab. Back in the laboratory, glider pilots can update and adjust glider trajectories to ensure they remain on course, or even change their paths.
NG645’s initial mission was to gather information on the Loop Current and Loop Current Eddies, major oceanographic features in the Gulf of Mexico.
“The Loop Current is sort of an arm of the western boundary current that eventually becomes the Gulf Stream,” Edwards said. “That’s one of the major features that this project seeks to capture. Just like we’re monitoring the edge of the Gulf Stream with our gliders, these are areas where the models need the most improvement, and where our observations can have the greatest impact.”
The glider is recovered off the coast of South Carolina.
The glider was a part of the Hurricane Glider Project, a series of gliders monitoring the ocean in the Gulf, Caribbean Sea and Atlantic that are programmed to collect information on ocean parameters from areas where tropical storms and hurricanes typically form or strengthen. Gliders gather temperature and salinity readings from throughout the water column, not just at the surface, and send it back to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in near-real time to improve the accuracy of upper ocean models used to create hurricane intensity forecasts. This was the first-time glider operators attempted such an ambitious mission.
“There were so many firsts during this mission,” said Kerri Whilden, a researcher from Texas A&M University, who led the collaboration in the Gulf before handing it off to Edwards as it rounded Key West and navigated up the East Coast. “It would be the first time we started piloting a glider in the Gulf and then sent it through the Gulf Stream around the tip of Florida, then on to South Carolina. It involved coordinating a lot of different organizations to deploy the glider, to pilot it and then to retrieve it at the end of its mission. It was a big team collaboration for sure.”
In addition to UGA Skidaway Institute and Texas A&M, other partners in the project included the Naval Oceanographic Office, the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System, the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association, the Underwater Glider User Group, the University of Southern Mississippi, NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Planning is under way for a repeat mission in 2022.
– Beginning in 1970, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources built a series of artificial reefs to provide habitat for marine life. However, until recently, there were gaps in some of the key information about those reefs, such as the precise locations of the materials placed on the bottom and water depth over the materials. Now, researchers at the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography are using cutting-edge bathymetric side-scan sonar and high-resolution geographic positioning systems (GPS) to provide coastal managers and fishermen a detailed picture of the location and condition of reef materials.
Georgia’s shelf is relatively shallow and extends approximately 80 miles offshore before dropping into the deep ocean. Most of the shelf bottom consists of shifting sand, which does not provide the kind of conditions to develop and support diverse reef communities.
“Much of the continental shelf is like a vast sandy desert,” UGA Skidaway Institute scientist Clark Alexander said. “So, what we need is more hard substrate, because that is really the most important thing for establishing stable live-bottom communities.”
A battle tank is pushed into the ocean to form part of an artificial reef. Photo credit: Georgia DNR.
Over the past 50 years, the state has placed hard-surface materials in 18 sites, each about 15 square kilometers in size. Eight of the sites are located along the coast approximately 10 miles off shore and another eight approximately 25 miles off shore. There are also two “beach reefs” that are closer to shore and accessible to fishermen with smaller boats. The reefs are made up of a wide range of materials, including old ships, battle tanks, pieces from the original Talmadge Bridge, retired subway cars from New York City, concrete pipes and pilings, and purpose-built, concrete tetrapods.
“The materials that were placed on the bottom in the 1970s and 1980s were sunk in place or deployed from barges using Loran-C, a radio-based navigation system that was significantly less accurate than current GPS, or dropped from Army helicopters, so their precise locations are not always exactly known,” Alexander said. “In addition, we have had a number of hurricanes and winter storms come through or offshore Georgia, and we don’t know whether some of the material has been moved from its original location.”
Alexander proposed a program to survey the reefs and develop a more accurate set of data on their locations and characteristics, which was subsequently funded through the Georgia Coastal Management Program, administered by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Coastal Resources Division.
Marine life attracted to one of Georgia’s artificial reefs. Photo credit: Georgia DNR.
“Our goals were to document the status of what is on the bottom, and to give more precise locations for the objects we identify,” Alexander said. “We used real-time kinematic GPS, so we know within a few centimeters where things are on the bottom.”
Alexander’s team began field work in 2018 and continued into 2021, using the 28-foot RV Jack Blanton. They spent an average of six days surveying each reef. They started with the beach reefs to work out any kinks in the planned survey approach and then moved on to the reefs 10 miles off shore. Along with high-resolution GPS, the team used an interferometric side-scan sonar that gives the depth and co-registered side-scan sonar imagery that provides images of the seafloor and objects sitting on it.
“Based on an object’s general location, and existing location data, we were able to make some good guesses as to ‘Oh, that must be a certain barge or ship’ and so on,” he said. “And we found a few objects that were not on existing maps and several others that had fragmented into several pieces since being placed.”
Another important parameter the team measured was the amount of clearance between the various structures and the ocean surface.
“You don’t want to have to worry about anything you put down being a hazard to navigation,” Alexander said. “Ten kilometers off shore, you are in about 10 meters of water or so, about 30 feet. So, if one of these sunken vessels was sticking up a significant height above the bottom, that is something you need to know.”
Alexander and DNR are making plans to survey the eight reefs that are about 25 miles off shore. They present a greater challenge than the reefs closer to shore. The longer distance means greater transit time and less time on-station actually conducting the survey. The team would also be constrained by the weather. Conditions must be very good and forecast to remain calm throughout both the transits and survey.
“Because when you are that far offshore, you are at the mercy of sea conditions, which can change quickly” Alexander said.
The data Alexander’s team collected is now being added to the DNR’s marine artificial reef fishing website. These new data products enhance the data available to anglers, and now allows users to zoom in to the individual features, see what they look like, and how they are distributed in relation to other features on the bottom. The data collected by the project can be found on the DNR’s artificial reef website:https://coastalgadnr.org/HERU/offshore
Four graduate students will gain hands-on experience in the planning and implementation of coastal and marine policies and programs in Georgia as part of their Georgia Sea Grant State Fellowships. The year-long fellowships offer a unique opportunity for students to work in host offices that include state and federal government agencies as well as non-governmental partners and industries in Georgia.
“We’re excited to be working with a great group of partners to provide these incredible opportunities for students who will gain invaluable insights that shape their future,” said Mark Risse, director of Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant. “It’s a win-win for everyone, as our partners will benefit from having talented students helping them solve critical coastal issues.”
The 2021-2022 fellows will work with the following partners: Georgia Audubon, NOAA Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, the Georgia DNR’s Coastal Management Program, Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve and Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society.
Victoria Baglin has a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from South Georgia State College. She is currently pursuing her master’s in biology at Georgia Southern University. Baglin’s graduate research focuses on assessing the effects of climate change on leaf decomposition rates and the macroinvertebrate communities that
support decomposition processes. As a fellow with NOAA Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, Baglin will advance several science, policy, and planning projects and programs, while gaining the diverse skills and professional experience necessary to succeed in a natural resource management career.
“The Georgia Sea Grant State Fellowship will not only allow me to engage in personal career development planning, but it will also allow me to contribute and participate in solving important environmental problems while addressing real-world issues faced by conservation managers,” Baglin said.
Kim Savides received a bachelor’s in wildlife science from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. As a master’s student at Utah State University, she is studying the migratory timing and routes of the Lazuli Bunting, a small songbird native to the western U.S. Her fellowship
at Georgia Audubon will involve expanding their coastal program with new bird research and monitoring, as well as public education and outreach about bird conservation.
“This fellowship is an exceptionally exciting opportunity that will allow me to build upon my research and monitoring experiences while also allowing me to interact with and engage a variety of resource managers, stakeholders and the public,” Savides said.
Shannon Matzke graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree in coastal environmental science. She is currently a master’s student in the biology department at Georgia Southern University. She is finishing up her thesis on Tybee Island’s coastal sand dune restoration project. Matzke will be working in the Georgia Coastal
Management Program, which is led by Georgia DNR’s Coastal Resources Division. She will assist with updating the Coastal Nonpoint Source Pollution program. While working on the project, she will experience active coastal management as well as gain key skills in coastal policy, resource management, stakeholder engagement and public interaction.
“This fellowship will introduce me to the policy side of coastal environmental work which will help me to better understand the ins and outs of current and future restoration projects,” Matzke said.
Hannah Morris has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from UGA and a master’s degree in anthropology from Ohio State University. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the integrative conservation program at UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resource Management where she is studying land
use history and forest change on several barrier islands off the Georgia coast. As a state fellow, Morris will be working with the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society to work on enhancing the resilience of Hog Hammock, a private community on Sapelo Island widely known as the last “Saltwater Geechee” community on the east coast. In her role, she will draft comprehensive flood mitigation recommendations to address the types of flooding impacting the community.
“This fellowship will allow me to bring my knowledge of that history, along with the skills and training I’ve received in my education, to address some of the most pressing conservation issues our coast faces, including climate change, land use change and socio-environmental justice,” Morris said.
Four recent college graduates have been selected for Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s year-long Marine Education Fellowship based at the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium on Skidaway Island.
As part of the fellowship, they will gain experience in environmental education, aquarium husbandry and coastal extension. They will also be able to participate in professional development opportunities and build a network of environmental educators, marine researchers and conservationists working in coastal Georgia.
Throughout the year, the fellows will teach field, lab and lecture classes that are offered to visiting school groups. They will also assist with animal husbandry at the UGA Aquarium and work closely with Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s extension specialists to incorporate information about their projects into educational programming.
The 2021-2022 fellows are:
Maura Glovins is from Corning, New York. She graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in marine science and a minor in education. While in college, Glovins served as the education outreach coordinator for the marine science club and worked as an educator for Harbison State Forest where she applied her
teaching skills to a forestry setting. She is looking forward to finding her niche in marine education and turning it into a career.
Ashley Del Core is from Vacaville, California. She graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and received a bachelor’s degree in marine sciences. Del Core’s passion for marine science education and outreach developed through volunteering as an aquarium educator and aquarist, assisting
with graduate student projects and serving as a teacher’s assistant for an ichthyology course. Del Core is excited to work with other passionate marine science professionals and introduce visitors to Georgia’s aquatic animals.
Chante Lively is from Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from Nova Southeastern University with a bachelor’s degree in marine biology and minors in global engagement and Spanish. Prior to starting her fellowship, she worked as an environmental educator at the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance. She hopes to get back to
her roots in marine science and use new tools and skills obtained through the fellowship to help determine her next career steps.
Diane Klement is from Augusta, Georgia. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in ecology and a minor in studio art. Klement has worked as an elementary and nature kindergarten substitute teacher, helping students discover the wonder and joy that comes from learning about the natural
world. She is looking forward to learning strategies to teach more effectively about coastal ecology and to help others better appreciate Georgia’s coastal ecosystems.
The NOAA Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary team entered its 20th month of working from home in December 2021. The time spent out of the office provided the sanctuary staff with the opportunity to develop virtual student internships and a new digital guide to best fishing practices at Gray’s Reef.
Gray’s Reef has incorporated two virtual internship programs in support of different elements in the sanctuary’s management plan. First, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities research internship supports a student for a 15-week internship to develop two research plans — one studying invasive lionfish in the sanctuary and the other, a sea turtle tagging program.
The second fall-winter interns come from the Virtual Student Federal Service program and focus on two projects. One will work on curating the photo archive of the sanctuary, while the other will develop a virtual, best diving practices guide. The combination of these paid and unpaid opportunities is helping staff build capacity to meet the various needs of the sanctuary.
For decades, Gray’s Reef has been an ideal spot for fishermen of all experience levels. In October 2021, the sanctuary staff produced a best fishing practices guide to help fishermen conserve the sanctuary for generations to come. The virtual guide,found here, compiles regulations, best practices and citizen-science opportunities that can be used to make the most of a fishing trip to Gray’s Reef. The guide also combines maps of the sanctuary, 360-degree videos, walkthroughs and other multimedia into a comprehensive fishing guide. The project gathered support from the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, University of Georgia Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant, South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council, Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Angler Action Foundation.
University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography biologist Adam Greer studies marine life from the bottom up (of the food chain, that is). Greer investigates plankton – organisms between approximately one millimeter to several centimeters in size – adrift in the water column. He uses a new, cutting-edge imaging system that reveals more of this microscopic world than has ever been possible before.
“I study tiny organisms in the ocean, and I’m interested in how they interact with their ocean environment, how the environment impacts them and how they interact with each other,” Greer said. “Mostly, I am interested in the early life stages of some of the fish and what happens to them when they are really small.”
“I study tiny organisms in the ocean, and I’m interested in how they interact with their ocean environment, how the environment impacts them and how they interact with each other,” Greer said. “Mostly, I am interested in the early life stages of some of the fish and what happens to them when they are really small.”
Greer’s lab group currently focuses mostly on gelatinous organisms, what they eat and how they move around in the ocean currents. Most are very small and often go unseen, and as a result, they are very poorly understood. However, they are an important part of the marine ecosystem, and depending on the particular species, they can play different roles. Some gelatinous species also impact the populations of much larger animals, like fish, by eating their larvae.
“Seafood is a multi-billion-dollar industry, so it’s pretty important to understand the fundamental processes that are affecting fish populations,” he said. “There is a lot of fish larvae out there. A lot of them are being eaten by predators, and we don’t know really at what rates and what kinds of environmental things could influence that mortality and the abundances on down the line.”
Traditional sampling methods, like towed plankton nets, are valuable because they provide a tangible sample for analysis. However, they cannot provide a picture of marine organisms in their natural environment and allow scientists to observe their interactions. For that, Greer and his fellow researchers utilize a high-tech imaging system that is towed behind a research vessel. The In Situ Ichthyoplankton Imaging System and similar iterations of that instrument record thousands of high-resolution images of marine organisms along with precise depth location of each individual.
Adam Greer (r) and graduate student Patrick Duffy perform post-cruise maintenance on the In Situ Ichthyoplankton Imaging System.
The imaging system is built around two pods with a camera in one pod and a light source in the other. As it is towed through the water, the plankton flow between the two pods and, if plankton are present, each individual blocks the light from reaching the camera. The camera picks up the shadows of the plankton that scientists or computer algorithms can identify. The system allows scientists to look at a large volume of water because all of the shadows are in focus.
“If you’re interested in gelatinous plankton, fish larvae, things like that, they’re not that common, compared to other plankton,” Greer said. “And so, you have to actually look at a lot of water to find those types of organisms. If you’re looking at too small of a volume, you won’t really run into things that are relatively rare in the plankton world like fish larvae and gelatinous organisms.”
A still-frame image from the In Situ Ichthyoplankton Imaging System with several zooplankton visisible.
Typical abundances for fish larvae are one individual per approximately 250 gallons of seawater, but there is a wide range observed in different marine ecosystems.
Researchers can see what each individual is experiencing in the environment and where they are in the water column. They can also observe the characteristics of their environment like temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen concentration.
“That’s a lot of information that we were just missing until now,” Greer said.
The imaging system also provides insight into which organisms are sharing the same space and how they interact. Which species is a predator and which species is the prey? What organism is a parasite to another? How do organisms move from one set of ocean conditions to another as they go through life stages?
Greer says each deployment is an adventure. “Every time we put it in the water, I feel like we see something new and something unexpected. And so that’s really the exciting part about these camera systems is that it’s really just a new view of how ocean life is interacting with each other and the environment.”
Greer recently published the results of some of his work in the ICES Journal of Marine Science. The paper can be viewed at https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsab149.
January 16 marked the 40th anniversary of Gray’s Reef’s designation as a national marine sanctuary. We invite everyone to share their thoughts about Gray’s Reef throughout 2021 on a Kudoboard set up by Jody Patterson, director of the Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.
The anniversary celebration began with a month-long social media campaign and continued with a proclamation from Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, naming January 16 “Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary Day.”
40th anniversary recognition from Savannah Mayor Van Johnson
Former President Jimmy Carter sent a letter recognizing the anniversary to Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Director John Armor. He also mentioned the other three sanctuaries he designated (Channel Islands, Looe Key, and Point-Reyes Farallon Islands).
President Carter’s letter
The anniversary was covered in print, online, and TV media, and culminated on Feb. 4. with a small Virtual Happy Hour celebration.
Scott Kathey joins the team
Scott Kathey has joined the staff at Gray’s Reef as Resource Protection Specialist. Kathey served as acting superintendent of the sanctuary in 2018.
Scott Kathey Photo Credit: Jody Patterson
Kathey and his wife, Sandy, are natives of Louisiana and have moved to Savannah from Monterey Bay, Calf., where his most recent role was Regulatory/Emergency Response Coordinator for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. For more than 28 years, Scott has used a combination of statutory, regulatory, policy, administrative and social tools to prevent and minimize threats to natural resources and processes in multiple national marine sanctuaries. He has collaborated with government partners, NGOs and the public to improve stewardship of protected marine resources. Scott succeeds and expands the role of Becky Shortland, who retired in December 2019 after 20 years at Gray’s Reef.
Gray’s Reef introduces multimedia galleries to exhibits
Sanctuary supporters are familiar with Gray’s Reef kiosks found at museums, aquaria and visitor centers that enable guests to explore the sanctuary from land. Starting this year, Gray’s Reef will replace the kiosks with large, touch screen, multimedia galleries showcasing 360-degree photos and videos of the sanctuary, sanctuary sounds, an interactive ecosystem and games.
Illustration of Gray’s Reef’s new touch screen, multimedia gallery
The multimedia galleries will allow for guided tours and lessons about the wonders of Gray’s Reef.
As part of the R/V Savannah’s biennial maintenance schedule, the ship was hauled out at Stevens Towing shipyard on February 17. Located on Young’s Island, S.C., near Charleston, the shipyard is close to the ship’s home port on Skidaway Island and offers top quality commercial yard services.
These shipyard periods are necessary to conduct maintenance projects that can only occur when the vessel is out of the water. This year’s projects are routine with the primary scope of work to resurface the bottom shell and top side shell coatings. Other projects include replacing the port shaft seal and standard gauging of the hull plate to measure steel thickness.
A good portion of work is conducted by the ship’s crew. Crew projects this year include, resurfacing the exterior decks, rails and superstructures; cleaning fouled pipes; and installing equipment such as a new replacement satellite communications antenna for the ship’s Fleet Express broadband internet service, to name a few. The crew understands this is a critical time for maintenance. It’s their home for much of the year, and they take a great deal of pride in making her the best platform she can be.
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