The Point Sur, a 135-foot research vessel, has left its 28-year home of Moss Landing Harbor, headed through the Panama Canal to its new home in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Moss Landing Marine Labs, the marine research facility for seven Cal State campuses, used Point Sur as a regional classroom—the only one of its kind on the West Coast. But in February, the San Jose State University Research Foundation sold it to the University of Southern Mississippi for $1 million.
Last Thursday, March 5, MLML faculty bid goodbye to the Point Sur, slipping the vessel's lines at 8am under two signal flags, Bravo and Zulu.
"In this order the flags are meant to convey 'job well done,' and they were flying in recognition of MLML and all who have used the vessel and taken such good care of her," biogeochemist Dr. Kenneth Coale wrote in an email to MLML faculty.
According to a 2006 story in the Weekly, the Point Sur cost its previous owners, the National Science Foundation, $8,000-$13,000 per day of operation. At the time, a pinch on federal funding for ocean research prompted a reduction of cruise time from about 180 days per year to 120. Still, it's a modest vessel:
Most of its gear, save a prized piece of equipment called a Triaxus that can measure plumes and other three-dimensional physical events in the water, is basic stuff—nets, cables, a sturdy crane. It’s a hardworking, blue-collar vessel that’s been described as the pickup truck of the nation’s 24-strong scientific fleet. At dock it’s dwarfed by its dazzling neighbor, MBARI’s mighty Western Flyer. It’s not easy being a civil servant in a private-sector world.
NSF reportedly took Point Sur off its inventory so it could pursue replacement projects—and in light of the fact marine scientists are spending more time at computers and less in the deep blue field.
MLML and San Jose Research Foundation staff put together a business proposal for CSU to purchase Point Sur, in hopes it could support ongoing marine science research out of Moss Landing. But San Jose State University President Mohammad Qayoumi decided not to forward the proposal to the CSU Chancellor's Office.
"The work underway at Moss Landing Marine Labs is incredibly important to so many of our faculty members and students," says SJSU spokeswoman Pat Harris. "SJSU and the entire CSU system is in an incredibly tight budget environment, and every dollar matters. The president was concerned about taking on additional debt at a time like this."
The research vessel, however, will motor on in the pursuit of oceanographic and environmental science. USM officials announced the Point Sur will be used to "explore the Gulf of Mexico, including further research on the BP oil spill of 2010," according to Gulf Coast newspaper The SunHerald.