A groundbreaking event for two new research facilities dedicated to science and stewardship of the oceans was held Sept. 15 on the Scripps campus in La Jolla, Calif. Special guests included Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, and NOAA Chief of Staff Margaret Spring, with officials from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). After the morning's groundbreaking ceremony, NOAA and Scripps scientists participated in a science symposium to help shape the future of collaboration in research exploration, monitoring and mentoring.
Scripps news release: http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=1025
Commerce Dept. news release: http://www.commerce.gov/NewsRoom/TopNews/PROD01_008416
Funding provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has rapidly advanced construction plans for NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Sciences Center (SWFSC) Laboratory. The new building is planned to incorporate a large sea- and fresh-water Ocean Technology Development Tank which will expand NOAA’s ability to develop and apply advanced technologies for surveys of fisheries resources and their associated ecosystems. This world-class facility will foster collaborations on fisheries management issues and will be a focal point for surveys and assessments of Pacific transboundary species, the development and application of ecosystem-based approaches to management, research on the impacts of environmental variability and climate change on marine ecosystems, and fisheries and conservation socio-economics. Construction of the new facility is scheduled to begin in October 2010 and be completed by October 2011. NOAA is also pleased to announce ARRA funding for a new Fisheries Survey Vessel (FSV-6) that will replace the NOAA Ship David Starr Jordan. Delivery of FSV-6 to San Diego is expected in 2014. Learn more about the SWFSC's La Jolla Laboratory Consolidation Project and the technologically advanced FSV-6.
Scripps has been awarded $12 million by NIST toward construction of a new $26 million Marine Ecosystem Sensing, Observation, and Modeling (MESOM) Laboratory on its campus for research on marine ecosystem forecasting. This new building will become a resource for marine ecological research at Scripps and for other national and international ocean science organizations that address the management of marine resources. The new facility will enable Scripps scientists to build upon a long history of successful research on marine ecosystems and their response to climate variability and change and to develop a new program that will provide the scientific foundation for marine ecosystem forecasting. The results of the research and modeling will benefit collaborations with NOAA's growing program in marine ecosystem management.