RV Gloria Michelle

Last updated
RV Gloria Michelle.jpg
RV Gloria Michelle moored at the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center's Woods Hole Laboratory dock in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
History
Flag of the United States.svg NOAA Flag.svg National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NameRV Gloria Michelle
NamesakePrevious name retained
Builder Diesel Shipbuilding Company, Jacksonville, Florida
Completed1974
Acquired1979
In service1980
Homeport Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Identification
StatusActive
NotesPennant no. F7201
General characteristics
Type Fisheries research vessel
Tonnage
Length72 ft (22 m) overall
Beam20 ft (6.1 m)
Height58 ft (18 m) (air draft)
Draft
  • 7.5 ft (2.3 m) forward
  • 9.5 ft (2.9 m) aft
PropulsionOne Caterpillar 3406 diesel engine, 365 shp (272-kW) at 1,800 rpm, one shaft, one 64 in (1.6 m) four-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller, B20 biodiesel fuel
Endurance5 days
Complement2 NOAA Corps commissioned officers, plus up to 14 additional personnel (scientists, technicians, observers, extra crew members) for a day trip or up to 8 additional personnel for an overnight trip
Notes Transducer offset 7 ft (2.1 m) (below waterline)
RV Gloria Michelle at sunset, moored at the NOAA NEFSC Woods Hole Laboratory dock in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. RV Gloria Michelle sunset.jpg
RV Gloria Michelle at sunset, moored at the NOAA NEFSC Woods Hole Laboratory dock in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

RV Gloria Michelle (F7201), sometimes rendered as R/V Gloria Michelle, is an American fisheries research vessel in non-commissioned service in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet since 1980. Prior to her NOAA career, she was a commercial shrimp boat that came into the possession of the United States Government after her seizure for carrying marijuana.

Contents

Registered as NOAA F7201, [1] Gloria Michelle conducts operations in coastal waters along the northeastern coast of North America.

Construction and acquisition

The Diesel Shipbuilding Company built Gloria Michelle at Jacksonville, Florida, in 1974 as a steel-hulled, diesel-powered commercial shrimp boat for use in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1979, the United States Customs Service seized Gloria Michelle after discovering 16 short tons (14.25 long tons; 14.5 metric tons/tonnes) of marijuana in her fish hold, at the time the largest seizure of illegal drugs in the history of Mississippi. After the conclusion of the trial of the people involved in smuggling the marijuana, Gloria Michelle was laid up in a bayou near Biloxi, Mississippi, to await her fate. [2]

At about the same time, the Conservation Engineering Group at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) at NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service Gloucester Laboratory in Gloucester, Massachusetts, was looking for a replacement for RV Rorqual, a 40-year-old former United States Army harbor tug the NEFSC used to support its fisheries science activities and its work designing and testing commercial fishing gear. [2] Finding Gloria Michelle well-suited for these endeavors, NOAA acquired her and assigned her to the Conservation Engineering Group at Gloucester. [2] Too small to meet NOAA's criteria for entering commissioned service because she is under 90 feet (27 meters) in length, Gloria Michelle instead entered non-commissioned service with NOAA as RV Gloria Michelle in 1980 after undergoing extensive modifications and upgrades necessary for her to operate as a research vessel. [2]

NOAA subsequently sold Gloria Michelle's predecessor Rorqual at public auction. [2]

Characteristics and capabilities

Built as a commercial fishing vessel, Gloria Michelle offered many features lacking aboard her predecessor Rorqual. [2] Configured as a stern trawler, [1] she had a larger deck area suitable for research work, a refrigerated fish hold, and a diesel engine offering twice the horsepower of Rorqual's powerplant. [2] Since NOAA acquired her in 1979, Gloria Michelle has undergone extensive modifications and upgrades – including the conversion of her refrigerated fish hold into space for berthing, a laboratory, and a septic system – and now only her hull is original; among equipment NOAA installed aboard her are a winch and an articulated crane for handling and recovering equipment. [2] Her hull is painted deep blue, and her deckhouse is white. [2]

Gloria Michelle has a permanently assigned crew of two people, both officers of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, [2] one of them serving as officer-in-charge [3] – who both commands the vessel while she is underway and is her chief administrator when she is in port [4] – and the other as junior officer-in-charge. [3] She can embark up to an additional 14 people for day trips or up to an additional eight people for trips requiring an overnight stay on board. [1] Except on short trips, NOAA usually assigns one or two additional crew members to Gloria Michelle temporarily to assist her two permanently assigned officers in operating the vessel. [4] Additional personnel embarked usually are scientists involved in fisheries research. [4]

Gloria Michelle has a five-day endurance, [1] the limiting factor being the supply of food she can carry for her crew and passengers. [4]

Operations and service history

RV Gloria Michelle operating at sea in the early 1990s during the years her home port was at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. RV Gloria Michelle Sandy Hook.jpg
RV Gloria Michelle operating at sea in the early 1990s during the years her home port was at Sandy Hook, New Jersey.

Assigned to support of the Conservation Engineering Group at NEFSC's Gloucester Laboratory and home-ported at Gloucester, Gloira Michelle began operations with NOAA in 1980. In her early years, she engaged in cooperative experiments and tested new scallop dredges, beam trawls, and groundfish nets designed to reduce wasteful and destructive bycatch. When the Conservation Engineering Group moved to the NEFSC's Narragansett Laboratory in Narragansett, Rhode Island, in the mid-1980s, NOAA relocated Gloria Michelle there as well. After the NEFSC opened its Sandy Hook Laboratory in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, NOAA moved Gloria Michelle to Sandy Hook to support it, which she did during the early 1990s. After that stint, she finally moved to her current home port at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, from which she supports the NEFSC's Woods Hole Laboratory. [2]

Gloria Michelle operates along the coast of North America from Virginia to Canada and as far offshore as George's Bank, usually between April and October each year, [2] [4] offering junior NOAA Corps officers an opportunity to demonstrate their leadership and seamanship aboard a NOAA vessel early in their careers. [3] She carries out an annual survey of shrimp populations in the Gulf of Maine – a joint effort of the NEFSC and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries – over a four-week period in July and August, embarking ten passengers and crew for voyages of up to five days at a time. Since 1982, she also has conducted annual spring and autumn surveys, each three weeks long, of groundfish populations for the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, making day trips seven days a week with a crew of three or four and four or five scientists on board. [2] During these surveys, Gloria Michelle typically fishes for 15 to 20 minutes at a time, brings everything aboard for embarked scientists to measure and study, and then repeats the process. [4] Scientists choose the locations for the surveys, some of them at random and others at historical sites; in the latter case, survey activities must be carried out in exactly the same way every year. [4] Information the scientists gather is used to determine fishing quotas for each year, although scientists take advantage of the survey process to gather other information of interest as well. [4]

During the rest of her annual operating season, Gloria Michelle engages in a variety of special projects, which have included deploying a wave data buoy in Rhode Island Sound for the United States Army Corps of Engineers, multibeam sonar mapping of underwater topography, testing of new technology, recovery of equipment lost by other vessels, and photographic identification of marine mammals. [2] In 1994, Gloria Michelle sampled seafood in the waters in and around a toxic waste dumping ground in Massachusetts Bay for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which determined the seafood to be safe for human consumption. [2]

On 5 May 2010, a BBC television crew shot footage of Gloria Michelle conducting survey work for a segment about surveying the ocean scheduled to air on an episode of the BBC series Horizon in October 2010. [5]

Rear Admiral Jonathan W. Bailey, the director of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps from 2007 until his retirement in 2012, served as officer-in-charge of Gloria Michelle early in his career. [2] On 1 June 2012, Gloria Michelle became the first vessel in the history of NOAA or its ancestor organizations to have an all-female crew. [3] [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of Marine and Aviation Operations</span> US platforms operated by NOAA

The Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which operates a wide variety of specialized ships and aircraft to carry out the environmental and scientific missions of NOAA.

NOAAS <i>Ronald H. Brown</i>

NOAAS Ronald H. Brown is a Thomas G. Thompson-class blue-water research vessel of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, she is NOAA's only Global-Class research ship.

NOAAS <i>John N. Cobb</i> U.S. fisheries research vessel

NOAA Ship John N. Cobb was a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel in commission from 1970 to 2008. She was named for John Nathan Cobb and was the oldest commissioned ship in the NOAA fleet when she was decommissioned, having previously served in the United States Department of the Interior′s Fish and Wildlife Service from 1950 to 1956 and in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service′s Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1956 to 1970 as US FWS John N. Cobb.

NOAAS <i>Delaware II</i> American fisheries research vessel

NOAAS Delaware II was a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fisheries research vessel in commission from 1970 to 2012. Prior to her NOAA career, she was in commission in the fleet of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1968 to 1970 as US FWS Delaware II. After her NOAA career ended, she was sold and in 2014 was converted into the research and survey ship RV Med Surveyor, operating under the flag of Panama.

USNS <i>Indomitable</i> Stalwart-class ocean surveillance ship

USNS Indomitable (T-AGOS-7) was a United States Navy Stalwart-class ocean surveillance ship in service from 1985 to 2002. From 2003 until 18 June 2014, she was in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as the oceanographic research ship NOAAS McArthur II. As of 2018 it serves as a mother ship now named the Deep Submersible Support Vessel (DSSV) Pressure Drop for the crewed deep-ocean research submersible DSV Limiting Factor.

USNS <i>Relentless</i>

USNS Relentless (T-AGOS-18) was a Stalwart-class modified tactical auxiliary general ocean surveillance ship in service in the United States Navy from 1990 to 1993. Since 1998, she has been in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet as the fisheries research ship NOAAS Gordon Gunter.

USS Halcyon (SP-518) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919. She saw service during World War I and its immediate aftermath. After the conclusion of her naval service, she was in the United States Bureau of Fisheries fleet as the research vessel USFS Halcyon from 1919 to 1927.

NOAAS <i>Henry B. Bigelow</i>

NOAAS Henry B. Bigelow is a fisheries research vessel operated by the United States' National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She is the second in a class of five fisheries research vessels. She is named after Henry Bryant Bigelow (1879-1967), the American oceanographer, zoologist, and marine biologist who founded the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

NOAAS <i>Bell M. Shimada</i>

NOAAS Bell M. Shimada is an American fisheries research ship in commission with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) since 2010. She operates along the United States West Coast.

NOAAS <i>Oregon II</i> American fisheries research vessel

NOAAS Oregon II is an American fisheries research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet since 1977. Prior to her NOAA career, she was delivered to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in 1967 as US FWS Oregon II, but not commissioned. She was transferred to NOAA in 1970, but was not placed in commission until 1977.

NOAAS <i>Miller Freeman</i> American research vessel

NOAAS Miller Freeman was an American fisheries and oceanographic research vessel that was in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet from 1975 to 2013. Prior to her NOAA career, she was in commission in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1967 to 1970 as US FWS Miller Freeman.

NOAAS <i>Townsend Cromwell</i> American fisheries research vessel

NOAAS Townsend Cromwell was an American fisheries research vessel that was in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet from 1975 to 2002. Prior to her NOAA career, she was in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries fleet from 1963 to 1975 as US FWS Townsend Cromwell.

NOAAS <i>Chapman</i> American fisheries research vessel

NOAAS Chapman was an American fisheries research vessel that was in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet from 1980 to 1998. After the conclusion of her NOAA career, she spent several years operating as the University of Puerto Rico marine research vessel R/V Chapman. More recently, she has become the Curaçao-based mothership for the deep-diving submarine Curasub.

NOAAS <i>David Starr Jordan</i> American fisheries research vessel

NOAAS David Starr Jordan (R444)) was an American fisheries research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 2010. She previously was in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries fleet from 1966 to 1970 as US FWS David Starr Jordan.

NOAAS <i>Oscar Dyson</i>

NOAAS Oscar Dyson is an American fisheries and oceanographic research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet since 2005.

NOAAS <i>Pisces</i>

NOAAS Pisces is an American fisheries and oceanographic research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet since 2009.

NOAAS <i>Oregon</i> American fisheries research vessel

NOAAS Oregon, previously NOAAS Oregon, was an American fisheries research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet from 1970 to 1980. Prior to her NOAA career, she operated under the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from 1949 to 1970 as US FWS Oregon.

NOAAS <i>George B. Kelez</i> American research vessel

NOAAS George B. Kelez, previously NOAAS George B. Kelez, was an American research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet from 1972 to 1980. Prior to her NOAA career, she operated under the United States Fish and Wildlife Service′s Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1962 to 1970 as US FWS George B. Kelez and the National Marine Fisheries Service from 1970 to 1972 as NOAAS George B. Kelez.

NOAAS <i>Murre II</i> American research vessel

NOAAS Murre II, previously NOAAS Murre II, was an American research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet from 1970 to 1989. Prior to her NOAA career, she operated under the United States Department of the Interior′s Fish and Wildlife Service from 1949 to 1956 and under the United States Fish and Wildlife Service′s Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1956 to 1970 as US FWS Murre II.

MV <i>Brown Bear</i> American research vessel

MV Brown Bear was an American research vessel in commission in the fleet of the United States Department of Agriculture′s Bureau of Biological Survey and Alaska Game Commission from 1934 to 1940 and in the fleet of the United States Department of the Interior′s Fish and Wildlife Service from 1940 to 1942 and from 1946 to 1951, under the control of the University of Washington from 1952 to 1965, and in commission in the fleet of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from 1965 to 1970 and of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration′s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) from 1970 to 1972.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.