2006 Ocean Sciences Meeting SEACOOS Poster - Utilization of a Commercial Cruise Liner as a Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) and Research Platform

For the program on "Ships and Other Platforms of Opportunity as Tools for Ocean Observation III Posters," OS36E-07. In 1999, a unique partnership was formed between the University of Miami and Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd to design and instrument staffed research laboratories onboard the 311m long cruise vessel Explorer of the Seas during the ship's construction. The instrumentation had significant support from NSF, NOAA and NASA with continued operations supported by ONR. A significant benefit of utilizing a commercial cruise liner as a Volunteer Observing Ship (VOS) and research platform is the extensive geographic regional coverage that can be obtained over repetitive tracks each year with a ship that cruises at an average of 20 knots, 365 days a year. Both of the alternating 7-day Caribbean cruise tracks are over 2000 nm long each week. This amounts to an impressive 110,000 nm of regional cruise track coverage each year. The partnership was designed to provide: 1) laboratory spaces utilized by research scientists as a national resource for defined research projects, 2) an integrated long-term atmospheric and oceanographic data set for interdisciplinary studies in the southeastern US coastal waters, Bahamas and the Caribbean Sea and the Straits of Florida, 3) a stable platform with extensive instrumentation capabilities for instrument testing and development, 4) integrated public outreach and educational program components complementary to the research activities, via onboard scientist lectures, onboard laboratory tours and training cruises for teachers, technicians and students. The Explorer of the Seas was selected for installation of these unique laboratory facilities as a low-cost, long-term ocean observatory platform in the Bahamas, Caribbean Sea and the Straits of Florida. The advantages, and disadvantages, of utilizing a large commercial cruise liner as a VOS, research and instrument development platform will be presented along with lessons learned from the past five years of operation. * E J Williams, R G Zika, O B Brown, P B Ortner