briefs
Research Vessel Launched
A new NOAA fisheries survey vessel, launched on December 19 in Mississippi, will be able to study fish quietly without altering their behavior. The ship, christened Pisces by Dr. Annette Nevin Shelby, professor emerita at Georgetown University and wife of Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, has been designed to meet NOAA Fisheries' specific data collection requirements as well as the new standards for a low acoustic signature set by the International Council for Exploration of the Seas. Pisces is the third of four new fisheries survey vessels of the same class, which will be homeported in Pascagoula, Miss., when placed into operation in late 2008, and will support NOAA Fisheries research and assessments in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and along the U.S. southeastern seaboard. Pisces was named by a team of students from Sacred Heart School in Southaven, Miss., which won a regional NOAA contest to name the ship and subsequently participated in her keel laying ceremony in June 2006. The contest was an educational initiative to help students learn more about their region's marine and coastal environment as well as to generate a greater
PISCES is launched into the Escawtawpa River at VT Halter Marine's Moss Point, Mississippi, shipyard. Dr. Annette Nevin Shelby, sponsor, christens PISCES.
deliveries
Lockport Finishes Third in Series
(Photo: Ray Broussard for NOAA)
Supreme Services Inc. is expecting delivery of the third in a series of Frank Basile designed utility vessels. All three vessels are from Richard Adams Sr. and son Dickie Adams' Lockport Fabrication. The first, the Betha G, was delivered in March 2006 with a second, the Warren Thomas, in early 2007. The third vessel, the Penny F, will deliver in early 2008. All three vessels are 166 x 36 ft. and powered by a pair of Cummins KTA38-M0 main engines generating 850 hp at 1800 rpm. A pair of Cummins 6CTA8.3-powered 99 kW generator sets provide electrical service. A single Cummins QSM11m powers the DP1-capable vessels' retractable azimuthing bow thruster.
interest in scientific studies. Pisces is the third of four planned 208-ft. fisheries survey vessels to be built by VT Halter Marine that are replacing aging ships in the NOAA fleet. Her capabilities will far exceed those of older NOAA ships, including Pascagoula-based Oregon II.
GPA 670 MKII Special Products PSVs Launched
(Photo: Ray Broussard for NOAA)
Guido Perla & Associates, Inc. announced that Zhejiang Shipyard in China has launched the Bourbon Hamos, the first of four GPA 670 MKII Special Products Platform Support Vessels owned by French marine services provider Bourbon Offshore. With this order, Bourbon's GPAdesigned fleet expands to 100 vessels, including 54 GPA 254L AHTSs, 28 GPA 654M PSVs, 4 GPA 670 ROVs and ten GPA 670 PSVs.
18 MN
January 2008