The NANCY FOSTER, a 187 ft. long NOAA research ship is utilizing its state of the art oceanographic instrumentation and data collection techniques for an intensive investigation of the near shore water quality and seafloor along Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in Florida.

The research cruise, part of the Florida Area Coastal Environment (FACE) Program, which embarked from Miami on Sunday October 6, 2006, is staffed by scientists from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), in Miami, Florida as well as researchers from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS). The cruise Is designed to investigate water quality in the vicinity of the six treated-wastewater outfalls that extend from one to three miles from shore, and to obtain background water quality values from the entire region in order to better understand the values measured near the outfalls.

According to Dr. John R. Proni, a NOAA research scientist who is the principal investigator for FACE, “ This project is an excellent example of how a NOAA research laboratory can provide its expertise to help resolve very important, local, environmental issues and concerns. Research projects of this type are certainly within NOAA’s scope and mission”.

The Florida Area Coastal Environment (FACE) program was created by NOAA and various Federal Government and local organizations in 2004. Its purpose is to obtain the scientific knowledge and long-term data needed to address key scientific issues of concern for environmentally compatible coastal management. FACE is primarily concerned with discharges into the Florida’s coastal ocean, which may arise from coastal inlets, groundwater, septic system leakage, deep oceanic upwelling, atmospheric deposition, treated wastewater releases, and the discharge of dredged materials. FACE field operations include a wide range of physical, biological, and chemical oceanographic measurements such as ocean currents, chemicals and isotopes, acoustic sensing of plumes, microbiological monitoring, and coral reef health monitoring. FACE is headquartered at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.

The Nancy Foster will return to Miami on October Nineteenth, 2006

Contact information
Name: John Proni
Tel: (305) 361-4312
John.Proni@noaa.gov

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