Provision of Shallow-Water Vessel and Facilities to Support SCUBA at the Shannon Point Marine Center

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Western Washington University's Shannon Point Marine Center (SPMC) is strategically located, providing direct acces from the mainland to a wide variety of marine and estuarine habitats that support a rich and diverse marine biota. The location and facilities provide distinctive opportunities for process-oriented research on productivity of coastal watersheds and wetlands, nutrient cycling and regeneration, microbial ecology, and benthic metabolism and on life history phenomena of local fish, inverterbrates, and macrophytes. To promote research and training in these topics, SPMC has developed a database and has established three model study sites to support long-term research. Recent facilities development has emphasized the analytical base. Analysis of SPMC's field support facilities has revealed fundamental weakness in research vessel capacity and in the ability to support SCUBA. Such weakness is restricting research and, if not addressed, will limit SPMC's capacity to respond to growing interest in use of its facilities by students and scientists. This project will support the purchase of a 22' shallow draft research vessel that will permit access to very shallow areas that typify our model study sites. Additionally, the project will support the purchase of a dive support vessel and renovation of space to provide a dive locker and compressor.