The Bigelow was built in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and launched in July 2005. In November 2006 the Bigelow moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where construction crews and engineers worked on thirty different items, ranging from the installation of vibration monitors to electrical work necessary to support FSCS, the NEFSC’s computerized at-sea data entry system.

One project on the work list was to put the finishing touches on the automated fish handling system that should make at-sea biologists more comfortable and more efficient during the hours they spend in the Bigelow’s fish processing lab. Built in Seattle, the custom-designed fish handling system was shipped south in September and installed while the Bigelow was in Pascagoula. In Norfolk, the system was fine-tuned, with a hatch welded here, a drain installed there.

The fish handling system is a state-of-the-art, ergonomically-friendly facility with conveyor belts, a hydraulic basket lift and hydraulic tables. The conveyors carry the catch into the lab where scientists sort it by species while it passes on the belt. Another belt carries filled baskets to a station where they are weighed on a motion compensated scale. Each weight is automatically entered into the ship’s computer system. The baskets then travel along another conveyor to a station where scientists can take samples and weigh and measure individual animals – data that are automatically entered into a computer from the scale and measuring board.

Another project in Norfolk involved modifications on the Bigelow’s electrical propulsion system, work that became necessary when a sister ship, the FSR/V Oscar Dyson, had an electrical problem that caused damage to its motors. A team of experts convened in August by NOAA’s Office of Marine & Aviation Operations diagnosed the Dyson’s electrical problem and figured out how to make modifications.

Shakedown cruises on the Bigelow will begin after the vessel arrives in Newport, with three sea trials scheduled for February and March. The fine-tuning of the ship’s systems will continue after the shakedown cruises are completed and the vessel is conducting research cruises. “You can’t really say the ship will be ‘finished’ for a few years yet,” Byrne said.

Posted February 8, 2007

The yellow grates are fold-down platforms that fish handlers stand on. The ergonomically designed fish lab can be heated in winter and cooled in summer. The indoor lab should provide a better working environment for scientists, and for the electronics they use to record their data. Photo by Chuck Byrne