NOAAS David Starr Jordan (R444) was an American fisheries research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 2010. She previously was in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries fleet from 1966 to 1970 as US FWS David Starr Jordan. After the conclusion of David Starr Jordan′s NOAA career, Stabbert Maritime purchased her, renovated her, and placed her in service as the oceanographic research vessel R/V Ocean Starr.
NOAAS David Starr Jordan
Construction and commissioning David Starr Jordan was built for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by the Christy Corporation at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. She was launched on 19 December 1964, delivered on 5 November 1965, and commissioned into service in the Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries on 8 January 1966 as US FWS David Starr Jordan in a ceremony at San Diego, California. She later was transferred to NOAA and became NOAAS David Starr Jordan (R 444) in the NOAA fleet.
Characteristics and capabilities A western-rigged trawler, David Starr Jordan was designed and rigged for midwater trawling, bottom trawling, longline sets, plankton tows, oceanographic casts, ocean-bottom sample grabs, scuba diving, and visual surveys of marine mammals and seabirds. She had a hydraulic hydrographic winch with a drum capacity of 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) of 5/16-inch (7.9-mm) line and a maximum pull of 1,600 pounds (730 kg), a hydraulic hydrographic winch with a drum capacity of 30,000 feet (9,100 meters) of 3/16-inch (4.8-mm) line and a maximum pull of 1,600 pounds (730 kg), a hydraulic combination winch with a drum capacity of 6,080 feet (1,850 meters) of 3/8-inch (9.5-mm) wire rope and a maximum pull of 6,500 pounds (2,900 kg), and two hydraulic trawl winches, each with a drum capacity of 8,830 feet (2,690 meters) of 5/8-inch (15.9-mm) line and a maximum pull of 12,000 pounds (5,400 kg). She also had a 50-foot (15-meter) telescoping boom with a lifting capacity of 11,838 pounds (5,370 kg), an 18-foot (5.5-meter) articulated boom with a lifting capacity of 4,650 pounds (2,109 kg), and a movable A-frame. Equipped to function as a floating laboratory, David Starr Jordan had a 370-square-foot (sq. ft.) (18.6-square-meter) (m2) chemical oceanography laboratory, a 210-sq. ft. (19.5-m2) physical oceanography laboratory, and a 53-sq.-ft. (4.9-m2) biological oceanography laboratory. She also had a 200-sq.-ft. (18.6-m2) scientific information center that served as a data-processing laboratory and a 76-sq.-ft. (7.1-m2) constant temperature room. Her laboratories had temperature-controlled aquaria and live specimen wells, and she had a walk-in freezer, a dark room, and an underwater observation chamber in her bow and on her port side for studying fish behavior at sea. David Starr Jordan had a helicopter platform, allowing her to host a helicopter for aerial observations and photographic survey missions. She carried three boats, an 18.5-foot (5.6-meter) Zodiac rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), an 18-foot (5.5-meter) Avon RHIB, and a 12-foot (3.7-meter) Boston Whaler fiberglass-hulled boat. All three boats were powered by gasoline outboard motors. In addition to her crew of 14, David Starr Jordan could accommodate up to 13 scientists.
Service history David Starr Jordan was built for the purpose of fisheries research in the tropical Pacific Ocean. She spent her career studying the biological and physical oceanography off the southwestern coast of the United States and in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean off the coasts of Central America and South America in support of the management of fish, marine mammal, and sea turtle populations. Her home port was San Diego. David Starr Jordan's first assignment in January 1966 was to take part in the California Cooperative Fisheries Investigation (CalCOFI), a joint effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (taken over by NOAA after its formation in 1970) and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to assess fish populations off the coast of California. It became a long-term commitment for her. During quarterly CalCOFI research cruises off southern and central California, scientists embarked aboard David Starr Jordan studied the marine environment and the management of its living resources as the ship collected hydrographic and biological data on the California Current system and monitored the indicators of El Niño events and climate change.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.




