Council Meeting Report

UNOLS Council Meeting

Wednesday & Thursday, March 10 & 11, 2004

Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution

J. Seward Johnson Marine Education and Conference Center

Fort Pierce, FL

These minutes are UNOLS Council approved as amended.

A copy of these minutes can be downloadedby clicking <200403cncmi.pdf>

Executive summary

The UNOLS Council met on March 10 and 11, 2004, at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce, Florida. Day one of the meeting included a joint session with the Fleet Improvement Committee (FIC). Fleet renewal was a major focus of the meeting.

NSF’s renewal plans for facility construction and funding were reported. The Alaska Region Research Vessel (ARRV) is slated for construction funding in FY06 with an estimated cost of $82M. The EWING replacement is planned over the period FY04 to FY09 at a cost of $20M. ALVIN Replacement is planned during FY04 to FY07 at an estimated cost of $20M. Three Regional Class vessels are planned with incremental construction of the first ship beginning in FY06 and the last ship coming on line in FY2012. Total cost for the three ships is estimated at $75 M.

NSF plans to issue a solicitation for Regional Class ship operators in 2004/2005. NSF needs UNOLS’ SMR priorities by summer, 2004. UNOLS will form a Regional Class Advisory Committee to address this effort. The design will need to consider the construction as well as operating cost constraints as factors in the prioritization effort. Based on UNOLS input, Navy and NSF will develop draft “Operational Requirements” in preparation for a RFP.

ONR has funded Phase II of the Ocean Class study, which will attempt to compare three different hull variants at the both the minimum and maximum SMR level. The three hull types being considered are mono-hull, SWATH and X-Craft. Throughout the study, JJMA will interact regularly with UNOLS, NSF, and ONR representatives.

Planning for Global Class mid-life refits will begin with an update of the Science Mission Requirements (SMRs) for general purpose Global Class Vessels. FIC will coordinate this effort. In other SMR and related activities, FIC plans to amend the Regional and Ocean Class SMR to include ADA requirements. They would also like to carefully review the “Lessons Learned” and PCAR comments and incorporate input as appropriate into the SMR documents.

The Federal Oceanographic Facilities Committee (FOFC) will update their Long-Range Fleet plan in an integrated way, so that it is a National Research Fleet Plan. They hope to do address this task over the next 18 months. They may broaden the scope of the plan somewhat beyond ships to include AUVs and ROVs as an example. FIC will provide input to the plan by updating the projected retirement dates for each UNOLS vessel based on operator input. Specifically, they will ask the operators whether the retirement date should be extended, and if so the estimated cost of the extension effort (5 and 10 years).

Other ship design and construction activities that were reviewed during the meeting included the status of the CAPE HENLOPEN replacement effort, EWING mid-life refit/replacement plans, ARRV design and the CAPE HATTERAS mid-life. An interim report was provided on the “Comparison of SWATH and Monohull Vessel Motion for Regional Class Research Vessels.”

In other activities, UNOLS will draft a unified response to the Ocean Commission report.

The University of Hawaii requested UNOLS Vessel designation for R/V KAIMIKAI-O-KANALOA (KOK). The Council decided that the FOFC Fleet Renewal Plan and overall fleet needs should be factored into decisions regarding fleet additions. They voted not to accept the UH application for UNOLS designation of KOK as a UNOLS vessel.

Other issues and reports addressed at the Council meeting included:

· Agency Budget shortfalls and their impact on ship schedules.

· Acoustic Permitting, Marine Mammal Issues and Impact on Ship Operations.

· The Council will send a letter to the UNOLS Working Group on Ocean Observatory Facility Needs thanking them for a job well done and pointing out that it will be a useful first cut at what the impacts of the OOI will be on other facilities.

· Shipboard Over-the-Side Handling Systems (Manufacturer winch inspections and load handling system symposium).

· Icebreaker plans and major issues

· HROV design status.

· Port charges.

· Quality of Service and Post Cruise Assessment – The Council agreed to keep the existing PCA Form in place for a while longer for further evaluation before implementing any changes.

· UNOLS Cables Draft Performance Requirements – The draft cable performance requirements will be sent to NSF and they will be encouraged to support a proposal for an engineering development effort.

· Frequency Spectrum Management Issue – There is a potential that some initiatives to allow use of certain frequency bands by commercial users and to prevent interference by others could result in ocean sciences being denied the ability to use certain frequencies or in having their systems interfered with. A UNOLS liaison will be appointed to keep abreast of these issues.

· Defined Levels of Technician/Instrumentation Support

· New Security Regulations.

Committee Chairs provided written reports and were also offered the opportunity to raise issues that might be of interest to the Council.

Lastly a Nominating Committee (Bob Knox - Chair, Peter Ortner, and Charlie Flagg) was appointed to prepare the 2004 slate of candidates to fill the positions opening on Council.