A sad time for deep ocean research

[Wookie]

I got word today that the R/V Seward Johnson and the Johnson Sea Link have been sold to Petrobras in Brazil. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute has seen a decline in grants and revenue, and I guess that FAU just can't afford the upkeep anymore. Too bad, those folks made some incredible discoveries in their time.

 

[Thalassamania]

I got word today that the R/V Seward Johnson and the Johnson Sea Link have been sold to Petrobras in Brazil. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute has seen a decline in grants and revenue, and I guess that FAU just can't afford the upkeep anymore. Too bad, those folks made some incredible discoveries in their time.

I think it is a bit more complex than that. The JSL and Seward Johnson were not brought into the UNOLS inventory without significant opposition. Their addition was made at significant cost to both other ongoing programs that had to make room at the NSF rice bowl for a large and expensive facility and at the expense of the future development of more modern and efficient approaches like Deep Rover, WASP, MANTIS, DEEP FLIGHT, etc.

The JSL was "obsolete" when it was brought on line and survived because it was still possible to do creditable work from it despite the fact that it's major feature (diver lockout) was unavailable ... it was sort of like the guy who buys a pickup truck to drive around the city but never uses the truck bed. The sub's control system was archaic and demanded an incredible level of pilot skill, especially with coupled with the JSL's lack of thrust and maneuverability. The best thing about the JSL was the engineering shop that built it's sampling systems, I wish that they could have been routinely turned loose on some more modern and efficient systems, the system that they built which we used on Deep Rover was amazing.

Never-the-less I'll miss her just the same.