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www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 53 port services. The contract includes four one-year option periods and three award term years which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to $116,512,788. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Va. (98 percent) and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (2 percent) and is expected to be completed by September 2006 (September 2013 with options and term years). Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Charleston, S.C., is the contracting agency activity. Perry Slingsby Systems, Geoconsult Sign Contract Geoconsult AS recently purchased two 3,000 m Triton XLS 125 hp sys- tems from Perry Slingsby Systems. Both systems will be permanently installed on one of Geoconsults new vessels during the first quarter of 2006. FPI Wins 3-Year Contract Fugro Pelagos, Inc. (FPI) negotiated a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Mobile District to provide surveying and mapping services in support of the Joint Airborne LIDAR Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise (JALBTCX) Regional Coastal Mapping and Charting Program, as well as other USACE programs. The contract will primarily employ Airborne Hydrographic LIDAR, but also includes several other Remote Sensing technologies. The Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract is for three-years, and not-to-exceed $12 million. To more effectively support this contract and FPI's existing Airborne Hydrographic LIDAR support con- tract with the U.S Navy's Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO), the company has opened a permanent office in Kiln, Miss., at the Stennis International Airport. Scripps Scientists Participate in First Surface Vessel Voyage Two ships taking part in a recently completed research voyage investigat- ing the oceanography, marine geolo- gy, geophysics and ice cover of the Arctic Ocean have become the first surface vessels to traverse the Canada Basin; the ice-covered sea between Alaska and the North Pole. The Swedish vessel Oden and the U.S. Coast Guard's Healy, both ice- breaking vessels outfitted for oceano- graphic research, completed the his- toric south-to-north trek in September as part of a recently con- cluded expedition to explore the marine environment in this unknown region. Although the same area had been crossed by submarines, the central Arctic Ocean had been Earth's least explored ocean area by surface ships due to its heavy concentration of floating sea ice, which in some areas spans more than 10 ft. thick. Jim Swift, a research oceanographer at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, participated in the voyage as leader of a five-person team on board Oden that analyzed ocean conditions in an effort to better understand the Arctic's role in the earth's ocean and climate system. Other scientists on board Oden and Healy hailed from Sweden, Finland, Canada, Germany, Norway and Denmark. According to Swift, part of the rea- son the Canada Basin surface crossing could be attempted and achieved at this time is because the ice cover over much of the Arctic Ocean has thinned in recent decades, opening the door to surface ships. However, the two vessels still encountered areas of extremely thick ice, forcing the ships to work in tandem to cut through the ice and forge a passage to the North Pole. Strategic route planning using satel- lite ice images and frequent helicopter ice reconnaissance aided the naviga- tion. Swift's investigations aboard Oden, research funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, involved examinations of ocean properties to help evaluate recent changes in ocean climate and global change studies. Swift and his team measured the seawater's temperature, salinity and chemical characteristics. Ultimately, the new data will aid assessments of climate change and be used to improve and test scientific models that describe the climate system. people & companies MTR#3 (49-64).qxd 11/14/2005 11:16 AM Page 53
