New Tools To Track Changing Oceans

A new research vessel and fisheries laboratory in Pascagoula will help to monitor critical changes occurring in oceans all across the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. MPB's Phoebe Judge reports.

At a commissioning ceremony held Friday in Pascagoula, the brand new 208 foot NOAA research vessel Pisces was put into official service before a crowd of hundreds. The Pisces was built in Pascagoula and will be docked there, and is the nation’s most advanced fisheries research vessel. One of the ships most important features is that it is acoustically quiet says Pisces Captain Chris Moore,

“It’s like stealthiness with a submarine, same kind of application here, and there are arguments that having acoustic quietness will give you a better sampling of the world’s ocean fish population.”

Much of the data that is collected by the Pisces will be used just next door from where the ship is docked at the brand new NOAA’s Fisheries Service Mississippi Laboratories. John Oliver, deputy assistant administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service says the new building is a long time coming after the old lab was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina,

“We’ve had people working in trailers, and now they are getting back into a modern research facility that they deserve and we can get on with life and hopefully it will start to bring closure to some of the affects from Katrina.”

Dr. Jane Lubchenco, is Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere,

“As the climate is changing the oceans are changing very rapidly. Facilities like this are essential for us to see what is changing and help us determine what we can do to better manage those changes.”

NOAA's vessel Pisces and the Mississippi laboratory will support fisheries research in the Gulf of Mexico, southeastern United States and the Caribbean.