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October 2000 Featured Platform
NOAA Ship Delaware II

The NOAA Ship Delaware II is a multidisciplinary platform that conducts fishery and living marine resource research in support of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Northeast Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.  The ship’s normal operating area is along the continental shelf and slope waters from Nova Scotia, Canada to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The vessel has also sailed the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

The data collected is used by NMFS and passed along to the New England and Mid-Atlantic Regional Fisheries Management Councils and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to determine sustainable yield levels for commercial fish stock and protected species.

Although most of the ship’s projects involve fishery stock assessments, the ship also conducts a wide variety of physical, chemical and biological studies.

Delaware II has worked with other U.S. Government agencies, universities and private concerns such as U.S. Geological Survey, University of Massachusetts and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Typical surveys include:
- Northeast Ecosystems Monitoring: to assess the impact of changing biological and physical properties of the Northeast continental shelf ecosystem which influence the sustainable productivity of living marine resources.
- Apex Predator Surveys: longlining and tagging sharks to investigate the distribution, abundance, species composition and migration studies of sharks.
- Atlantic Herring Hydroacoustic Surveys: to obtain abundance estimates using multifrequency echo integration, omni-directional sonar, midwater trawls and underwater video.
- Ocean Quahog and Surf Clam Surveys: to determine relative abundance and sustainable yields using a unique hydraulic-jet dredge powered by an electric pump on the dredge.
- Marine Mammals, Large Whale Biology: to examine the relative abundance and spatial distribution of large whales using  photographic and videographic identification methodology and biopsy sampling for population analysis and genetics.
 
 

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Last Update  March 1, 2001 (cab)