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Next year, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary staff will become acquainted with a new arrival to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fleet

The R/V Storm will be added among the vessels from NOAA's fleet that are stationed in Alpena. The boat is 50 feet long and is originally from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y. It will join the 41 foot Huron Explorer and a 25 foot Whaler.

According to Russ Green, sanctuary deputy superintendent, the boat is similar to the Huron Explorer. Some of the sanctuary staff got their first glimpse of the Storm on Tuesday when the crew made a stop in Alpena to refuel while on their way to Muskegon. There the boat will be renovated and formatted with equipment to suit the sanctuary's needs over the winter

season.

"The idea of taking an older boat and refitting it to our needs really fits our green mission," he said.

The Storm will be cleaned out and receive new navigation and positioning equipment, sonar equipment, new generator along with a crane, said Beau Braymer, NOAA science tech. Green said the boat likely will use side scan sonar and they're considering the use of multibeam sonar as well.

Acquiring the boat is one of the necessary preparations if expansion of the sanctuary's boundaries takes place.

"We're always going forward, particularly with expansion. We're going to need bigger boats and a few boats," Green said.

The boat's larger size will have several added benefits for sanctuary operations.

Green said the boat will be good for tech diving which involves more equipment. The boat's fold-down transom at the stern gets people closer to the water for deploying and fetching divers.

The bigger deck and cabin will allow staff to take students out on educational outings with a remotely operated vehicle. The cabin will be better suited to house the equipment necessary to utilize a larger ROV. Currently the staff dive a lot of the wrecks and if the sanctuary expands, an ROV will be needed to document the wrecks, Green said.

The sanctuary often partners with universities on research projects and the boat will benefit those partnerships. For example, next year the University of Michigan and University of Texas will conduct projects using autonomous underwater vehicles. The Storm will be available to those university groups and will be suited to accommodate them, Green said.

Patty Ramus can be reached via e-mail at pramus@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.