Research vessel arrives

GULFPORT, Miss. -- A 135-foot research vessel that will study marine science issues reached its home port Sunday, becoming the University of Southern Mississippi's newest and largest research vessel. The Point Sur, a $1 million investment, reached the state Port of Gulfport after a three-week voyage from Monterey, Calif. Southern Miss, the state's designated marine sciences institution, bought the vessel and paid for the trip with a $1 million grant from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. Officials said the purchase price was $875,000 and it cost $125,000 to sail the ship from California and through the Panama Canal to Gulfport. "It is the first oceanographic-class research vessel homeported in the northern Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi River,” said Monty Graham, chairman of the Southern Miss department of marine science. Among those awaiting for the ship's arrival were graduate students at USM, Stennis Space Center and the Gulf Coast Research Lab in Ocean Springs. Jim Franks, senior research scientist at GCRL, said the ship "will expand our research horizons for sure." (Source: Sun Herald, 03/29/15) Previous