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In 1999 the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council began preparations for the Gulf of Alaska Ecosystem Monitoring and Research Program (GEM). One goal is to establish a long-term monitoring program to detect environmental change and to expand understanding of Gulf of Alaska ecosystems. GEM will complement the monitoring efforts of other resource agencies and research institutions. Monitoring at sea is expensive if done from a dedicated research vessel that can cost upwards of $20,000 per day to operate. However other alternatives exist. One is to use a vessel that plies the waters of interest and outfit it to make scientific measurements. Such a Volunteer Observing Ship (VOS) would operate at no cost to the research agency. The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) operates a fleet of ferries in Alaska. The ferry M/V Tustumena crosses the Alaska Coastal Current between the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island over 280 times per year with less-frequent trips northeast into Prince William Sound and southwest to Dutch Harbor. In FY2004 GEM's top priority was to initiate the process to collect basic physical and biological observations from an Alaskan ferry. Primarily with GEM funding, NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Kachemak Bay Research Reserve (ADF&G KBRR) began such a study. AMHS has generously allowed GEM to instrument Tustumena. |
EcoFOCI Project Office |
last updated 4/15/2008 |