RV ''Wecoma'' is a research vessel owned by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

and operated by the College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

(OSU) as a member of the

University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System The University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) is a group of academic institutions and National Laboratories organized in the United States to coordinate research vessel use for federally funded ocean research. Authority The UNOLS ...

(UNOLS) fleet. It is based in Newport in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

near OSU's

Hatfield Marine Science Center The Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) is a marine science research and education center next to Yaquina Bay of the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is operated by Oregon State University in cooperation with five state and federal ...

. Launched in 1975, it has a maximum displacement of . The ship is equipped with of laboratory space to support up to 18 scientists at sea. It has a variety of equipment permanently installed, and optional additional equipment available on request, to measure and analyze navigational data; surface atmospheric conditions; sea surface temperature, salinity, fluorescence; bottom depth; dissolved oxygen titration; solar radiation; GPS time; bioacoustics; and geological sampling. The range of depths of submerged equipment varies from . The vessel can support diving operations, radioactive isotope materials, and explosive materials. ''Wecoma'' made her last operational cruise November 2011 and was scheduled to be retired with the interim replacement ship being the former Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution operated R/V ''Oceanus''.

References

External links

''Wecoma'' Homepage
Research vessels of the United States University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research vessels Oregon State University Newport, Oregon 1976 ships {{ship-stub