When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I have worked at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution on and off for nearly 20 years. I have watched as they have sold off one asset after another to stay in operation. We all thought things would be better once Florida Atlantic University took over. We were all wrong.
The University has a $25 million budget shortfall this year. Interestingly, Petrobas (the Brazilian National oil company) offered FAU $25 mil for my ship. The ship currently works off of grants from the National Science Foundation, NOAA, Discovery, BBC, US Navy, EPA, etc and brings almost $4 million a year into the state. Obviously, to the bean counters running the show, a 1 time $25 mil payment trumps $4 million a year, and all the scientists, technicians, and merchant mariners that that income employs.
We know more about the surface of Mars than we do about the oceans beyond the continental shelf. This is one of the few tools in the world that help improve that understanding. Please sign a petition to preserve it.
Thank you everyone!!!! It's an unfortunate situation that University management does not realize what they have or how much they will be throwing away. Budgets are insanely tight all over, and the money has to come from somewhere, but there are fewer "Bang for buck" fields than the ocean sciences right now. Energy, fisheries, weather/climate, mineral resources, biomedical compounds, unknown species etc etc.
(Plus, I need to buy new autocross tires )
Please sign a petition to save my ship.
)
