United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration transfers more than 40 years of CPR plankton samples to SAHFOS
SAHFOS has taken delivery of more than 40 years worth of CPR plankton samples from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center conducted continuous plankton recorder sampling on the northeastern U.S. continental shelf from 1971 until 2013 due to a loss of U.S. Federal funding.
Samples were collected from a variety of volunteer vessels in the Gulf of Maine and Mid-Atlantic Bight.
The volunteer vessel operators included the Bermuda Container Line, Eimskip, Happag-Lloyd and the United States Coast Guard.
Most of the samples were kept in an archive at a NOAA laboratory in Narragansett, Rhode Island.
NOAA transferred operation of the U.S. routes to SAHFOS following the loss of funding.
In June 2016, NOAA also transferred their archive of samples to SAHFOS in Plymouth, UK.
This transfer will ensure that these samples continue to be preserved and that they will be available for future research.