NOAA Launches New Low Acoustic Signature Fishery Survey Vessel

NOAA Launches New 'Low Acoustic Signature' Fishery Survey Vessel
Underwatertimes.com News Service
September 29, 2008 15:51 EST

Washington, D.C. -- NOAA today launched the fourth of a series of new fisheries survey vessels designed to study fish quietly without altering their behavior.

Moments before the ship was launched into the Escatawpa River, Bell M. Shimada was christened by her sponsor, Susan E. Lautenbacher, an educator and wife of retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

The vessel is the fourth of the same class designed to meet NOAA’s Fisheries Service specific data collection requirements and the new standards for a low acoustic signature set by the International Council for Exploration of the Seas. The 208-ft. Bell M. Shimada and her sister ships were built for NOAA by VT Halter Marine Inc., in Moss Point, Miss., as part of the Department of Commerce and NOAA fleet replacement strategy to provide world-class, state-of-the-art platforms for U.S. scientists.