Murkowski: Alaska’s Mariners Need 21st Century Data
Senator Lauds Fairweather Research Vessel Updating Nautical Information
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Lisa Murkowski welcomed the beginning of the NOAA Fairweather’s 30-day mission in the Arctic today, as a crucial step forward in using 21st century technology to map some nautical routes last measured during the Revolutionary War – and collect data on some areas that have never been fully charted for depth levels.
“We are living in an age of sophisticated navigational software and significant investments in fisheries, resource development and tourism,” said Murkowski, co-chair of the Senate Oceans Caucus. “We need our men and women out on the waters to have access to comprehensive, accurate information – not data collected by Captain James Cook in 1778.”
(USS Fairweather in front of Mount Fairweather, Alaska – Courtesy NOAA)
Today, the Ketchikan-based Fairweather embarked on a monthlong mission to survey a sparsely-measured 1,500-nautical mile coastal corridor from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, north through the Bering Strait and east to the Canadian border. Senator Murkowski has placed a high priority on such Arctic research, pushing for additional resources through her position on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
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