The research vessel Laurence M. Gould at the Palmer Station pier.NSF/USAP ANDREW V. WILLIAMSA White House report released in May assessing the state of federal science vessels reveals an ageing fleet that has been decimated by withering budgets and rising operating costs. Several ships have been sold in the past decade, and dozens more will be sold or retired in the coming decades, with only a small handful of ships set to replace them.
“The community is deeply concerned that the ability to go to sea will be significantly reduced in the next decade, as research ships are retired or laid up,” Mark Abbott, dean of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University in Corvallis, told Nature.
Currently, 42 research vessels are deployed in the world’s oceans and the Great Lakes to carry out a wide variety of scientific missions for agencies such as NASA, the US Geological Survey and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The average age of the vessels in the fleet is 23 years, with the oldest commissioned more than 45 years ago. Since 2003, despite increasing demand, the fleet’s usage rate has slipped for several reasons, including a 400% ...
