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The following article is from an archived newsletter. See our Shared Waters newsletter.

New Vessel Joins the Great Lakes Science Fleet, More on the Way

Photo of Mark Burrows
Mark Burrows
New Vessel Joins the Great Lakes Science Fleet, More on the Way

Meet the Arcticus, a new 77.5-foot Great Lakes research vessel operated by the Great Lakes Science Center, an arm of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The Arcticus replaces the 75-foot Grayling at its homeport in Cheboygan, Michigan, and will be used to explore Great Lakes ecosystems. The vessel was designed by JMS Naval Architects and constructed by Burger Boat Co. of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, over a period of 14 months.

The USGS took delivery of the Arcticus in October 2014, when it was deployed to conduct a lake trout spawner survey in northern Lake Michigan.

The Articus. Credit: D. Hondorp, USGS
The Arcticus. Credit: D. Hondorp, USGS

The new vessel was a highlight of a recent workshop in Traverse City, Michigan, where operators of Great Lakes research vessels, and vessels engaged in education and outreach, gathered for the 19th Annual Science Vessel Coordination Workshop. The workshop is organized each year by a steering committee of members of federal, state, provincial and academic institutions that operate the vessels.

There are 78 science vessels active in the Great Lakes, each more than 25 feet long, and smaller boats which assist conservation officers, scientists, educators and resource managers (See this interactive map).

Over the years, these operators have formed the Great Lakes Association of Science Ships (GLASS), with 68 American and Canadian participating organizations networking and providing information about these vessels  at www.CanAmGlass.org.  

GLASS is dedicated to improving communication and collaboration between science vessels to help match vessel capabilities with the needs of research and educational programs.

The IJC, through its binational Science Advisory Board’s Research Coordination Committee, provides funding and staff support for the workshop in partnership with the Great Lakes Commission, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, USGS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and state and provincial natural resource agencies. Canadian and U.S. and vessel operators participate in the workshops.

This year’s agenda focused on maintaining vessel crews, new regulations impacting research vessels, the status of the Great Lakes research vessel fleet, newly discovered shipwrecks and the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

A great deal of time was spent sharing experiences with vessel operations and newly built research vessels, like the Arcticus. The new ship’s name comes from the species name for the arctic grayling, Thymallus arcticus. It’s a versatile floating lab, with the capacity to continue historical lake-wide fishery surveys and provide state-of-the-art scientific instrumentation to advance research.

 

Burger Boat Company R V ARCTICUS-HD from Burger Boat Company on Vimeo.


The Arcticus at-a-glance:

  • Length: 77.5 feet
  • Breadth: 26 feet
  • Draft: 8.9 feet
  • Full load displacement: 205 tons
  • Cruising speed: 9.5 knots
  • Maximum speed: 10.2 knots
  • Builder: Burger Boat Co. (Manitowoc, Wisconsin)
  • Designer: JMS Naval Architects (Mystic, Connecticut)
  • Architect: Gregory C. Marshall, Naval Architect, Ltd. (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
  • Design and Construction cost: $5.6 million.

Source: USGS

 

Additional new research vessels will be needed in the future, as the average age of a Great Lakes research vessel is about 30 years, significantly older than vessels operated in saltwater. Fifteen percent of the fleet is 61-70 years old. Eighteen percent of the fleet is 1-10 years old.

The Grayling, which was replaced by the new Arcticus, was almost 40 years old and sold to NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Pasqagoula, Mississippi, in November 2014.

The experiences shared at the science vessel coordination workshops help operators learn from the errors of the past and collaborate more efficiently with their counterparts across the Great Lakes. We look forward to the 2016 workshop being an even greater success.

 The Grayling, far right, docked at the Cheboygan Vessel Base in 2011. Credit: USGS/Andrea Miehls
The Grayling, far right, docked at the Cheboygan Vessel Base in 2011. Credit: USGS/Andrea Miehls

Photo of Mark Burrows
Mark Burrows

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