R/V ''Ocean Starr'' (formerly US FWS ''David Starr Jordan'' and NOAAS ''David Starr Jordan'' (R444)) is an American

research vessel A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

. She was in the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

s Bureau of Commercial Fisheries fleet from 1966 to 1970 as US FWS ''David Starr Jordan''. The ship later served under the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

(NOAA) from 1970 to 2010. After the conclusion of ''David Starr Jordan''′s NOAA career, Stabbert Maritime purchased her, renovated her, and placed her in service as the

oceanographic Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

research vessel R/V ''Ocean Starr''.

NOAAS ''David Starr Jordan''

Construction and commissioning

''David Starr Jordan'' was built for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by the

Christy Corporation Bay Shipbuilding Company (BSC) is a shipyard and dry dock company in Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin. As of 2015, Bay Ships was a subsidiary of Fincantieri Marine Group and produces articulated tug and barges, OPA-90 compliant double hul ...

at Sturgeon Bay,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. She was launched on 19 December 1964,NOAA Ship ''David Starr Jordan'' flier
/ref> delivered on 5 November 1965, and commissioned into service in the Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries on 8 January 1966 as US FWS ''David Starr Jordan'' in a ceremony at

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. She later was transferred to NOAA and became NOAAS ''David Starr Jordan'' (R 444) in the NOAA fleet.''Ships of the NOAA Fleet'', Rockville, Maryland: United States Department of Commerce, June 1989
/ref>

Characteristics and capabilities

A western-rigged trawler, ''David Starr Jordan'' was designed and rigged for

midwater trawling Midwater trawling is trawling, or net fishing, at a depth that is higher in the water column than the bottom of the ocean. It is contrasted with bottom trawling. Midwater trawling is also known as pelagic trawling and bottom trawling as benthic ...

bottom trawling Bottom trawling is trawling (towing a trawl, which is a fishing net) along the seafloor. It is also referred to as "dragging". The scientific community divides bottom trawling into benthic trawling and demersal trawling. Benthic trawling is towing ...

, longline sets,

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucia ...

tows,

casts, ocean-bottom sample grabs,

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chr ...

, and visual surveys of

marine mammal Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their ...

s and

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s. She had a

hydraulic Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counte ...

hydrographic

winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attach ...

with a drum capacity of of 5/16-inch (7.9-mm) line and a maximum pull of , a hydraulic hydrographic winch with a drum capacity of of 3/16-inch (4.8-mm) line and a maximum pull of , a hydraulic combination winch with a drum capacity of of 3/8-inch (9.5-mm) wire rope and a maximum pull of , and two hydraulic

trawl Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...

winches, each with a drum capacity of of 5/8-inch (15.9-mm) line and a maximum pull of . She also had a telescoping boom with a lifting capacity of 11,838 pounds (5,370 kg), an articulated boom with a lifting capacity of 4,650 pounds (2,109 kg), and a movable

A-frame An A-frame is a basic structure designed to bear a load in a lightweight economical manner. The simplest form of an A-frame is two similarly sized beams, arranged in an angle of 45 degrees or less, attached at the top, like an uppercase lette ...

. Equipped to function as a floating

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physic ...

, ''David Starr Jordan'' had a 370- square-foot (sq. ft.) (18.6- square-meter) (m²)

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...

oceanography laboratory, a 210-sq. ft. (19.5-m²) physical oceanography laboratory, and a 53-sq.-ft. (4.9-m²) biological oceanography laboratory. She also had a 200-sq.-ft. (18.6-m²) scientific information center that served as a data-processing laboratory and a 76-sq.-ft. (7.1-m²) constant temperature room. Her laboratories had temperature-controlled aquaria and live specimen wells, and she had a walk-in

freezer A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...

, a

dark room A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and pho ...

, and an underwater observation chamber in her bow and on her port side for studying fish behavior at sea.noaa.gov "NOAA Decommissions Long-serving Research Ship ''David Starr Jordan''," 3 August 2010
/ref> ''David Starr Jordan'' had a

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

platform, allowing her to host a helicopter for aerial observations and photographic survey missions. She carried three boats, an

Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The pat ...

rigid-hulled inflatable boat A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull bottom joined to side-forming air tubes that are i ...

(RHIB), an Avon RHIB, and a

Boston Whaler Boston Whaler is an American boat manufacturer. It is a subsidiary of the Brunswick Boat Group, a division of the Brunswick Corporation. Boston Whalers were originally produced in Massachusetts, hence the name, but today are manufactured in Edg ...

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

-hulled boat. All three boats were powered by

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organi ...

outboard motor An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method ...

s. In addition to her crew of 14, ''David Starr Jordan'' could accommodate up to 13 scientists.

Service history

NOAAS David Starr Jordan (R 444) aerial view

''David Starr Jordan'' was built for the purpose of fisheries research in the tropical

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. She spent her career studying the biological and physical oceanography off the southwestern coast of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean off the coasts of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

in support of the management of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

, and

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhe ...

populations. Her home port was San Diego. ''David Starr Jordan''s first assignment in January 1966 was to take part in the California Cooperative Fisheries Investigation (CalCOFI), a joint effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (taken over by NOAA after its formation in 1970) and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to assess fish populations off the coast of California. It became a long-term commitment for her. During quarterly CalCOFI research cruises off southern and central California, scientists embarked aboard ''David Starr Jordan'' studied the marine environment and the management of its living resources as the ship collected hydrographic and biological data on the

California Current The California Current is a cold water Pacific Ocean current that moves southward along the western coast of North America, beginning off southern British Columbia and ending off southern Baja California Sur. It is considered an Eastern bound ...

system and monitored the indicators of ''

El Niño El Niño (; ; ) is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date ...

'' events and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

NOAAS David Starr Jordan (R 444) with MD 500 helicopter

Operated by NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations after NOAA was established on 3 October 1970, ''David Starr Jordan'' supported NOAAs

National Marine Fisheries Service The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the ste ...

Southwest Fisheries Science Center Laboratory in

La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

, California.

Dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

population assessment in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean was one of her longstanding missions, and she was an integral part of the

surveys conducted by the laboratorys Protected Resources Division, including the '' Stenella'' Abundance Research Project (STAR), a three-year study of dolphin stocks taken as

incidental catch In fishing, incidental catch is that part of the catch which was not originally targeted, but was caught and retained anyway. It can be contrasted with discards, which is that part of the catch which was not originally targeted, but was caught and ...

by the

yellowfin tuna The yellowfin tuna (''Thunnus albacares'') is a species of tuna found in pelagic waters of tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. Yellowfin is often marketed as ahi, from the Hawaiian , a name also used there for the closely related bigeye ...

purse-seine fishery in the eastern tropical Pacific. When assessing dolphin populations, she operated in cooperation with NOAAs MD 500 helicopter, which provided

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing airc ...

support; from the photographs, scientists could measure the length of individual animals and count the number of dolphins in selected schools, which then could be used to calibrate estimates of the sizes of schools of dolphins made by observers aboard ''David Starr Jordan''. Data ''David Starr Jordan'' collected were critical in supporting the " dolphin-safe”

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max len ...

campaign and labeling requirements and led to a major reduction in dolphin mortalities related to the operations of the yellowfin tuna industry. Researchers embarked on ''David Starr Jordan'' investigated seasonal variations in ocean temperature,

currents Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (stre ...

and salinity. ''David Starr Jordan'' also conducted an annual juvenile striped bass survey,

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

surveys, and occasional special research work required by the Southwest Fisheries Science Center Laboratory. She took part in several research expeditions that took her as far afield as

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

, and the Galapagos Islands. In all ''David Starr Jordan'' logged over and spent an estimated 8,949 days at sea, averaging over 240 days at sea per year. She measured and weighed 1,000 sea turtles, took 27,000 photographs using

remotely operated vehicle A remotely operated underwater vehicle (technically ROUV or just ROV) is a tethered underwater mobile device, commonly called ''underwater robot''. Definition This meaning is different from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the a ...

s, and conducted 27,000 oceanographic sampling casts, 22,000 plankton tows, and 4,700 fish trawls. The ashes of the noted fisheries scientist

Oscar Elton Sette Oscar Elton Sette (March 29, 1900 - July 25, 1972), who preferred to be called Elton Sette, was an influential 20th-century American fisheries scientist. During a five-decade career with the United States Bureau of Fisheries, United States Fish ...

(1900–1972) were scattered at sea in the Pacific Ocean from the deck of ''David Starr Jordan'' on 7 September 1972.Lasker, Reuben, and Thomas A. Manar, In Memoriam: Oscar Elton Sette, ''Fishery Bulletin'', National Marine Fisheries Service, Volume 70, Number 4.
/ref> After over 44 years of service, ''David Starr Jordan'' was decommissioned on 3 August 2010 and sold at auction on 27 May 2011.

R/V ''Ocean Starr''

Characteristics and capabilities

Stabbert Marine of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, purchased the ship, renovated her, and placed her in service as the privately owned research vessel R/V ''Ocean Starr''. Classified by the

American Bureau of Shipping American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

as an

research vessel, ''Ocean Starr'' emerged from her renovation with six laboratory spaces with a combined total floor space of 1,058 square feet (322 square meters), deck space of 1,670 square feet (509 square meters) on her

main deck The main deck of a ship is the uppermost complete deck extending from bow to stern. A steel ship's hull may be considered a structural beam with the main deck forming the upper flange of a box girder and the keel forming the lower strength me ...

and 900 square feet (274 square meters) on her 01 level, a CTD winch, a hydraulic winch, a stern

, and a Alaska Marine telescopic boom crane with a lifting capacity of . She can carry 50,000 U.S. gallons (189,271 liters) of fuel, 410 U.S. gallons (1,552 liters) of lubricating oil, and 8,000 U.S. gallons (30,283 liters) of potable water. She has temperature-controlled aquaria, live specimen wells, a walk-in freezer, a

, a data processing laboratory, and an underwater observation chamber in her bow and on her

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

side that allows embarked personnel to study the behavior of fish at sea.calcofi.org RV ''Ocean Starr''
/ref> Her accommodations for her eight to 10 crew members and up to 23 to 25 embarked scientists include 19 staterooms.

Service history

With her home port at Seattle, ''Ocean Starr'' is operated for Stabbart Maritime by Ocean Services, Inc. She operates in the Pacific Ocean, sometimes under charter to NOAA. Among other duties, she continues to conduct CalCOFI cruises, and hosts teachers taking part in NOAA's Teacher at Sea program. In May 2013, she conducted an annual

cruise along the

United States West Coast The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S. ...

to survey populations of

ichthyoplankton Ichthyoplankton (from Greek: ἰχθύς, , "fish"; and πλαγκτός, , "drifter") are the eggs and larvae of fish. They are mostly found in the sunlit zone of the water column, less than 200 metres deep, which is sometimes called the epi ...

krill Krill are small crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, and are found in all the world's oceans. The name "krill" comes from the Norwegian word ', meaning "small fry of fish", which is also often attributed to species of fish. Krill are consi ...

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrell ...

, squid, and other marine life. On July 23, 2015, with the lead oceanographer for

The Ocean Cleanup The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit environmental engineering organization based in the Netherlands, that develops technology to extract plastic pollution from the oceans and intercept it in rivers before it can reach the ocean. After initial t ...

and 15 researchers and citizen scientists on board, she departed

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, California, to operate as one of approximately 30 vessels that took part in the Mega Expedition, in which the vessels cruised in parallel across the Great Pacific garbage patch, covering of the

in an effort to collect more

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

samples in three weeks than had been collected in the previous 40 years combined. In the autumn of 2015, she conducted a survey sponsored by the

Government of Mexico The Federal government of Mexico (alternately known as the Government of the Republic or ' or ') is the national government of the United Mexican States, the central government established by its constitution to share sovereignty over the republ ...

of endangered

vaquita The vaquita ( ; ''Phocoena sinus'') is a species of porpoise endemic to the northern end of the Gulf of California in Baja California, Mexico. Averaging (females) or (males) in length, it is the smallest of all living cetaceans. The species i ...

s off the coast of

. In July 2017,

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

scientists spent 21 days aboard ''Ocean Starr'' collecting imagery of the

Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault System The Queen Charlotte Fault is an active transform fault that marks the boundary of the North American plate and the Pacific plate. It is Canada's right-lateral strike-slip equivalent to the San Andreas Fault to the south in California. The Queen C ...

off southeastern

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

.Maureen Walton, Danny Brothers, Nathan Miller, Jamie Conrad, Peter Haeussler, and Jared Kluesner, "Expedition along a Hazardous, Fast-Moving Fault off Southeast Alaska—the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault," ''Soundwaves'' (United States Geological Survey monthly newsletter), January 2018
/ref>

References

External links

*
Video "R/V Ocean Starr, 172' Expedition Yacht conversion of former NOAA Research ship is for sale" on YouTube, July 19, 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:David Starr Jordan Ships of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ships of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Ships built in Superior, Wisconsin 1964 ships

NOAAS ''David Starr Jordan''

Construction and commissioning

Characteristics and capabilities

Service history

R/V ''Ocean Starr''

Characteristics and capabilities

Service history

See also

References

External links