Innovative scientific outreach aboard Pt Jeff ferry during sunset cruise
STONY BROOK, NY., September 24, 2003 — Starting with the September 29th inaugural demonstration of a first-of-its kind observation system known as the SoundScience project, ferry passengers, the general public as well as scientists anywhere in the world can receive both instant and continuous information about the health of Long Island Sound, one of the region’s most important estuaries.
In an innovative approach to coastal research funded by New York Sea Grant, scientists at Stony Brook University’s Marine Sciences Research Center have installed cutting-edge oceanographic and atmospheric monitoring equipment aboard the P.T. Barnum ferry. Through a unique partnership between one of the world’s leading oceanographic institutes and the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company, scientists can now visualize and record the “heartbeat” of Long Island Sound–how it changes from minute to minute and how these changes affect this valuable living marine resource.
“The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company is providing an extremely valuable resource by letting us sample the Sound from their vessel,” says Duane Waliser, MSRC researcher on the project. Normally, meteorological measurements are made by stationary instruments and only provide data from one place at a time. The ferry’s mobile nature provides the research team with real-time data from across the Sound. From it, researchers are getting a clearer picture of the impact the atmosphere has on hypoxia, a condition of low dissolved oxygen that is stressful to lobsters as well as a wide range of the Sound’s aquatic organisms.
During the September 29 sunset cruise, invited guests can monitor this critical information by watching a computer screen on the Barnum’s passenger deck. Instruments also automatically transmit data to a Web site operated by the Marine Sciences Research Center, http://www.stonybrook.edu/soundscience. The demonstration comes at the conclusion of National Coast Week and National Estuary Day, events that have been designated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as opportunities to teach awareness of the nation’s estuaries.
Project Partners: New York Sea Grant, Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company,
Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook University, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For further information go to http://www.nyseagrant.org/pages/boardthebarnum0903.htm.
