Fall 2023 23 PHOTO BY DARRYL LAI RESEARCH TESTING THE WATERS OSU’s new research vessel draws one step closer to coming home With a small crowd of eager onlookers on shore and more watching streaming video online, R/V Taani was floated for the first time this May using a drydock. Once the ship’s hull was submerged five feet, teams of inspectors closely examined the interior for leaks. Then the vessel, which is not yet under its own power, was towed by a pair of tugboats back to its assembly point in Houma, Louisiana. The much-anticipated oceanographic research vessel will be operated by Oregon State University and based on the Oregon Coast. It’s part of a $390 million project, led by OSU and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, that will provide scientists with a total of three research vessels equipped with state-of-theart tools for studying rapidly changing ocean conditions and human impacts on the marine environment. The other two — R/V Narragansett Dawn and R/V Gilbert R. Mason — will be docked in Rhode Island and the Gulf of Mexico. After sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, Taani will make its way to Newport , where it will undergo further testing before its first scientific expeditions. —Michelle Klampe
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