By MICHELLE KLAMPE/OSU News Service
A new 200-foot research vessel headed to the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport was successfully launched last week at a shipyard in Louisiana.
The ship, R/V Taani, is being constructed as part of a project, led by Oregon State University and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, to provide scientists with valuable new tools to study critical issues such as rapidly changing ocean conditions and human impacts on the marine environment.
The research vessel project, supported by more than $390 million in grants, is charged with delivering three nearly identical ships to the U.S. Academic Research Fleet. The ships are being built by Bollinger Shipyards in Houma, La. with construction staggered about six months between each vessel.
The first ship — Taani — will be operated by Oregon State University and based in Newport.
“Seeing Taani in the water is a very special moment and signifies the promise of many scientific advances to come in the years ahead,” said Tuba Özkan-Haller, dean of OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, which is overseeing the effort for the university.
With a small crowd of eager onlookers on shore and more watching a web camera online, Taani was floated for the first time Thursday using a drydock.
Once the ship’s hull was submerged five feet, teams of inspectors examined the interior for any leaks before completing the launch. The vessel was then towed by a pair of tugboats back to where it was assembled at Bollinger Shipyards. It will remain docked there while construction and outfitting are completed.
A year more work
The Taani will replace R/V Oceanus, a National Science Foundation-owned vessel that was retired last October. OSU also operates the Elakha, a 54-foot research vessel, and the university’s Marine Mammal Institute has its own research vessel, the Pacific Storm,
Last week’s launch essentially concludes the major exterior construction on the vessel. The shipbuilders will now complete wiring and finish installing equipment and other construction tasks; carry out weeks of operational testing; and conduct sea trials to ensure the vessel is ready for its mission.
“It has taken tremendous dedication and an extraordinary team of designers, shipbuilders, scientists, inspectors, technicians and project and contract managers to bring Taani to life, but there is still much work to be done before the vessel is operational,” said Clare Reimers, the OSU professor of ocean ecology and the project scientist.
The name Taani, a word used by the Siletz people meaning offshore, was chosen to recognize Oregon’s Indigenous peoples and continues a university tradition of tying names of research vessels to regional tribes and languages.
The second vessel, the R/V Narragansett Dawn, will operate on the East Coat and the third vessel, the R/V Gilbert R. Mason, will be based in the Gulf of Mexico.
The 200-foot ships are unique, with new technologies and other features to enhance operational capabilities, improve safety and expand ocean-based research. Each ship is designed to operate with 13 crew and up to 20 scientists for missions extending up to three weeks at sea.
“These are very technically advanced vessels and getting the many systems that scientists use to all fit within the available internal space has been challenging,” said Demian Bailey, OSU’s principal investigator and project manager for the research vessel program.
Construction of Taani is expected to be completed in 2024. After that, the ship and its new OSU-based crew will spend several months learning to operate the vessel, training on safety protocols and conducting trials of the scientific tools, sensors and equipment in the Gulf of Mexico before bringing the vessel through the Panama Canal and to its home port in Newport.
The first research expeditions aboard Taani are expected in 2025 under current timelines.
Newport dock upgrades
Oregon State University was first awarded a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation to complete the research vessel design in 2013 and grants to build the three ships followed. The project was initially expected to take about 10 years but was delayed due to the Covid pandemic, Gulf Coast hurricanes that damaged Houma and the shipyard, and other challenges.
While the vessels are under construction in Louisiana, there is also a significant effort underway in Oregon to support the project. At an OSU warehouse in Corvallis, a “transition to operations” team is developing and testing scientific sensors and instrumentation; setting up the ships’ cyber infrastructure and ordering tools, equipment and supplies that will be needed to operate the vessels – everything from spare propellers to galley equipment.
At the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, a $13 million project is underway to renovate and upgrade the dock and improve the causeway to accommodate Taani. The original portion of the dock, constructed in the early 1960s, is being replaced with a wider trestle and the power system on the dock will be upgraded as well.
“With a new ship and a new pier, and the hiring of several new ocean-going scientists, we will be ready to get to work once Taani arrives in Newport,” Reimers said. “We have a lot of people who are excited to use this ship. Taani and her crews will shape the future of ocean science and education.”