NOAA has issued a Request for Proposals for construction of NOAA’s newest fisheries survey vessel, the fifth in its state-of-the-art Oscar Dyson vessels class designed for 40-day mission science deployments.
With new design modifications to support the specific requirements of NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, the new vessel is scheduled to be delivered by late 2014 and will replace the 44-year old NOAA ship David Starr Jordan. Although designed for SWFSC, the vessel will be capable of being used for other NOAA research.
NOAA’s newest fisheries survey vessel and her sister ships collect the critical data streams required for science-based conservation and management of the Nation’s living marine resources. The vessel will have a full suite of modern instrumentation for cutting-edge fisheries and oceanographic research, including acoustic quieting of ship systems, advanced navigation and dynamic positioning, multi-frequency acoustic sensors, bottom and mid-water trawl capability capabilities, scientific sampling gear and extensive wet, dry, and acoustic laboratory space.
NOAA’s RFP is a full and open competition for a fixed-price contract and targeted for a November 2009 award.
