OND99 Quarterly Rpt. sidebar
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John
N. Cobb Sails Past
Half Century Mark
(Quarterly
Report for Oct-Nov-Dec 1999)
The NOAA research
vessel John N. Cobb celebrates its 50th
anniversary as a fisheries research vessel on 18
February 2000. The Cobb is NOAA’s oldest
research vessel and only wooden ship in the
NOAA fleet.
Commissioned 18 February 1950, the Cobb began
its service to the Fish and Wildlife Service, a
forerunner of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The Cobb is designed after a west coast
purse-seiner, with certain modifications to improve
its seagoing characteristics. During its first year
of operation while fishing for tuna off the
Washington coast, scientists aboard the Cobb
discovered a seamount, which now bears the
vessel’s name. In 1963 the ship was written
up in the Encyclopedia Americana as the most
advanced fisheries research vessel in the world.
Even after one-half century of service, the ship is
in excellent condition and still uses its original
Fairbanks-Morse 1931-design engine.
The Cobb conducts fisheries and oceanographic
research throughout the northern Pacific Ocean,
utilizing almost every type of fishing method,
including seining, trawling, and longlining. In the
past, the ship conducted operations for the U.S.
Navy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the
Atomic Energy Commission,as well as every West Coast
university.
Today, the Cobb is used for fisheries
research activities in Southeast Alaska and U.S.
Pacific coastal waters in support of the AFSC’s
Auke Bay Laboratory and National Marine Mammal
Laboratory. The ship collects fish and crustacean
specimens using trawls and benthic longlines. It
also collects fish larvae, eggs, and plankton using
plankton nets and both surface and midwater larval
nets. Bottom trawls can also be conducted to depths
of up to 600 meters. Additionally, the ship conducts
marine mammal surveys of whales, porpoises, and
seals. The Cobb carries a full suite of
electronic equipment.
The Cobb bears the name of a distinguished
leader in the field of fisheries research, John N.
Cobb. He was the founder and first dean of the
University of Washington’s College of Fisheries.
In the early 1900s, Dean Cobb served in the Bureau
of Fisheries for 17 years. He is regarded widely for
his untiring efforts in developing the College of
Fisheries and for his data gathering on the
fisheries of Alaska.
For the past 14 year, the Cobb has
participated in Seattle’s Seafair Special
People’s Christmas Cruise. The ship hosts special
needs adults and their companions during a boat
parade on Seattle’s waterways.
Click here for more information and pictures
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