Ships of the Western Coastal & Marine Geology Team

The USGS Coastal & Marine Program requires larger vessels capable of extended ocean operation, for surveys and investigations of the continental shelf, as well as smaller vessels for surveys of shallow estuaries and coastal regions.

Coastal vessels with varying speed and endurance capabilities are about 40' in length and are specifically designed for shallow-draft near-shore and coastal operations. The R/V David Johnston (76kb) is based in San Francisco, and the R/V Karluk is based in Seattle. Additional information about the R/V Karluk is available in Infobank.

WCMG also uses vessels maintained and operated by the University National Oceanographic Laboratories (UNOLS) and contract vessels as needed. For more information on all platforms used in our research, please see "USGS CMG Data & Metadata keyed on platforms" at http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/infobank/programs/html/platform2summaryhtml/a_ids.html