All Photos: Courtesy of New York Sea Grant

Oswego, NY, August 6, 2014 - Several New York Sea Grant staffers were on-hand for a ceremony at the Lake Ontario Event Center to celebrate the U.S. Geological Survey's newest research vessel, The R/V Kaho.

The vessel was built in 2011, but this is its first full season on the water. Its predecessor was nearly 50 years old. The new ship comes with state of the art navigation and scientific capabilities, giving U.S.G.S. scientists modern equipment to use out on the water.

"We can do better and we can learn more, we can understand not just how many fish are there, but how they react to the changing environment of the lake," said USGS researcher Dr. Brian Weidel.

The Kaho can be at sea five days with sleeping accommodations for six people.

For more on the event, see the video clip.



The new Kaho (pictured below) replaced the original R/V Kaho (built in 1961), which was the workhorse of the multiagency fisheries research fleet on Lake Ontario for more than three decades. The new Kaho participates in long-term data collections including population studies of prey fish and stocked lake trout, fish and environmental sampling for contaminants monitoring, and documentation of changes in food webs and fish distributions associated with invasive species.

(Bottom row, right) New York Sea Grant Coastal Community Development Specialist Mary Penney (at far left) talks with one of NYSG's 2014 Launch Stewards and (at far right) NYSG's Associate Director Dr. Kathy Bunting-Howarth. For more on NYSG's Launch Steward Program, see "Launch Stewards Serve Up Another Season of Educating Boaters on Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention."


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New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York, is one of 33 university-based programs under the National Sea Grant College Program (NSGCP) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NSGCP engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting scientific research, education, training and extension projects designed to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our aquatic resources. Through its statewide network of integrated services, NYSG has been promoting coastal vitality, environmental sustainability, and citizen awareness about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources since 1971.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG also offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/coastlines for NY Coastlines, its flagship publication, which merged with our e-newsletter, Currents, in 2014 - is published several times a year.