RV Gloria Michelle

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RV Gloria Michelle
RV Gloria Michelle moored at the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center's Woods Hole Laboratory dock in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
History
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NameRV Gloria Michelle
NamesakePrevious name retained
BuilderDiesel Shipbuilding Company, Jacksonville, Florida
Completed1974
Acquired1979
In service1980
HomeportWoods Hole, Massachusetts
Identification
StatusActive
NotesPennant no. F7201
General characteristics
TypeFisheries research vessel
Tonnage
  • 96
    gross registered tons
  • 64
    net tons
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
B20 biodiesel
fuel
Endurance5 days
Complement2
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
NotesTransducer 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 (F7201), sometimes rendered as R/V Gloria Michelle, is an American

marijuana
.

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

Construction and acquisition

The

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

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

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

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

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

  • NOAA ships and aircraft

References

  1. ^ a b c d nefsc.noaa.gov Gloria Michelle General Information
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p nefsc.noaa.gov "R/V Gloria Michelle: NEFSC Research Vessel Has Colorful History"
  3. ^ a b c d Teehan, Sean, "NOAA ship leaves Woods Hole with first all-female crew," capecodtimes.com, June 2, 2012, 8:50 a.m. EDT.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hefler, Janet, "Lt. Anna-Liza Villard-Howe takes command of NOAA research vessel," mvtimes.com, June 6, 2012.
  5. ^ wordpress.com NEFSC Field Science: NOAA R/V Gloria Michelle, Caught on Film!, May 30, 2010.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RV_Gloria_Michelle&oldid=1182670855"