Portland Press Herald Article
Thursday, December 30, 1999
Maine may get nation's first ocean observatory
By DENNIS HOEY, Staff Writer
© Copyright 1999 Blethen
Maine Newspapers Inc.
The federal government has agreed to spend $5.7 million to help establish the
nation's first ocean
observatory somewhere in
Maine.
Evan Richert, director of the
State Planning Office, said
the money set aside for
GoMoos, an acronym for the
Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing
System, has been included in
the Office of Naval
Research's budget for next
year. A team of Maine
scientists still must present
a final proposal to a review
board in Washington, D.C.,
before Feb. 28.
"The money is there, but it's
not ours quite yet. We still
have to earn it," Richert
said.
Richert, who led the
committee that helped develop
the concept of an ocean
observatory, said he is
confident GoMoos will get the
money because a preliminary
critique by federal officials
three weeks ago was
favorable.
The state has been helping to
plan the observatory, but
once started, it would be run
by a nonprofit consortium of
research institutions that
includes the University of
Maine, Bigelow Laboratory for
Ocean Sciences in West
Boothbay, and the Island
Institute in Rockland.
A site has not been chosen.
Brunswick Naval Air Station
and a decommissioned Navy
center in Winter Harbor have
been mentioned.
By 2001, the observatory
should give scientists and
researchers new, timely
information about the Gulf of
Maine. The information could
be used to predict an
outbreak of red tide, how
ocean currents might impact
the arrival of a freighter,
or determine whether the Gulf
of Maine's lobster population
is being overfished.
The service would be similar
to what the National Weather
Service does now, but GoMoos
would provide daily updates
on conditions at sea or water
temperatures.
"The marine environment is so
complex," said Philip
Conkling, president of the
Island Institute. "The only
way to manage it better is to
integrate all of our
observations from different
sources. This will allow us
to get a picture of what's
happening out there in real
time."
Conkling said GoMoos will
rely on ground-based radar,
federally owned satellites
and ocean buoys to collect
data from the Gulf of Maine
on an hourly or daily basis.
The information will be
transmitted to a home office.
In the past, information
about red tide outbreaks, the
movement of fish, currents,
oil spills or lobster
populations might have taken
several months to understand.
The observatory will make it
available within hours or
days.
Some information will be free
to the public on the
Internet, but some data will
be sold, for instance, to
fishermen, whale watch tours,
cruise ships, tourism
officials, research
institutions, the shipping
industry or fishery
management agencies.
"The raw data needs to be
available on a free and open
basis because we are using
federal tax dollars," Richert
said.
The home office initially
would employ four people,
with a maximum work force of
eight that would include an
executive director and a
technical director.
Neil Pettigrew, a University
of Maine associate professor
of oceanography, is working
with other scientists to
develop GoMoos' final project
proposal.
He said the $5.7 million in
federal funding would be used
to buy four ground-based,
high frequency radar units
that can measure surface
currents throughout the Gulf
of Maine. Surface current
patterns can be used, for
example, to track the
movement of lobster larvae or
an oil spill. About 12
automated, solar-powered
buoys can measure currents
below the surface as well as
water temperatures.
Conkling said the observatory
will be a national pilot
project.
"It's great to be seen as a
national leader, but the
backside is we are going to
be in a goldfish bowl," he
said.
Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can
be contacted at 791-6328 or
at: dhoey@pressherald.com
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