Boston
A NEWLY acquired vessel that was supposed to monitor the fragile environment
of the American Great Lakes has sunk at its moorings.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was given the
20-metre Halcyon last winter by the Army Corps of Engineers. In October, NOAA
moved the Halcyon to a winter berth in Muskegon, on Lake Michigan. The agency
planned to install equipment to monitor water clarity, temperature and
conductivity, so that the vessel could replace the ageing Shanahan, another
ex-army ship used on the Great Lakes.
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But on 2 December, disaster struck. 鈥淚t was fine on Sunday, but come Monday
morning it was sinking,鈥� says Peter Landrum, acting director of the Great Lakes
Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As New
杏吧原创 went to press, salvage engineers were trying to raise the vessel
from 9 metres of water.
No one is sure yet why the ship sank. But there is one bit of good news:
Landrum says the vessel had not yet been fitted out with equipment. 鈥淚n that
sense, we were lucky.鈥�