NOAA and the University of California have signed a 55 year ground lease clearing the way for construction next year of a new federal laboratory and office center at the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography campus in La Jolla.
“This is a key step as we prepare for construction of a world-class research facility where hundreds of federal and university scientists will investigate the entire ecosystem of fish and marine mammals off the California coast and beyond,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “The new laboratory facility continues our long-standing educational and science partnership with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.”
Known as NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center, the 120,000-square foot facility, when completed in late 2011, will house up to 300 staff members in laboratory, office and support space. Initial site work is scheduled to start in autumn 2009, with construction on the new facility scheduled to start in spring of 2010.
“NOAA's new facility will enable continued expansion of collaborative research among our scientists, and will foster interaction between Scripps Ph.D. students and NOAA experts,” said Tony Haymet, director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
NOAA's new research facility will replace the existing Southwest Fisheries Science Center, which was partially vacated in the summer of 2008 due to continued bluff erosion.
This facility will expand NOAA's ability to develop and apply advanced technologies for surveys of fisheries resources and their associated ecosystems and to foster collaborations on fisheries management issues. The building also will house state-of-the-art laboratories for biotechnology, photogrammetry and life history, and necropsy; experimental aquaria; and extensive collections of California Current ichthyoplankton and tissue samples for marine mammal and marine turtle genetics.
