NOAA is pleased to announce the launch of NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker at the Marinette Marine Corporation ship yard in Wisconsin. Pamela A. Lasker, the daughter of the ship’s namesake and its sponsor, broke the bottle of champagne before the 208-ft. vessel entered the Menominee River. The Lasker is the fifth in a series of the most technologically advanced fisheries survey vessels in the world. Delivery of the Lasker to the west coast is expected in 2013. Funding is provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker (Credit: Val Ihde, Marinette Marine Corp.)
The new vessel is named after the late Dr. Reuben Lasker, who served as the Director of SWFSC’s Coastal Fisheries Division and as adjunct professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, U.C. San Diego. Dr. Lasker built a renown research group that focused on the recruitment of young fish to the adult population – a topic with implications for fisheries management throughout the world.
NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker and her sister ships collect the data required for science-based conservation and management of living marine resources. The new Lasker will be equipped with a full suite of modern instrumentation for fisheries and oceanographic research, including advanced navigation systems, multi-frequency acoustic sensors, direct sampling gear and extensive laboratories. These technologies will dramatically improve NOAA's ability to conduct surveys for fish, marine mammals and turtles off the U.S. west coast and in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The ship’s capabilities will also allow simultaneous collection of data on ecological factors affecting the status of fish and protected species and provide a context for predicting the likely effects of climate change on living marine resources. The high-tech ship is also engineered to produce much less noise than other survey vessels, allowing scientists to study fish populations and collect oceanographic data with fewer effects on fish and marine mammal behavior.
VIDEO: Launch of NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker (Credit: NOAA)
NOAA launch press release
Read more about Reuben Lasker
Read more about NOAA's new west coast fisheries survey vessels