F.
Shiptime Support
An adequate research vessel is an absolute requirement for the
transportation of personnel and equipment to the Atolls and for support of
personnel and the program during residency at any Atoll.
There are no
adequate vessels available for short-time charters in the Marshall Islands at
the present time.
Currently DOE provides support for its on-going programs
through an annual lease arrangement.
The current 198] estimated annual
operating costs for the vessel is $900,000.
It is estimated that this cost
will increase annually by at least 15% primarily because of rising fuel
costs.
The home port of the vesse) is Kwajalein Atoll.
This Atoll is a
convenient staging area for scientists and equipment since it is accessable by
air from the U.S. mainland.
.
Shiptime is a valuable commodity and presently there is little flexibility
in the schedule to accomodate any significant additional use of the current
vessel.
Unless part of the on-going DOE programs in the Marshalls were
reduced in effort, the present vessel would be inadequate to provide the
support required for current programs and any additional program requiring
several months of independent operation in the field.
provide a separate vessel to support this EMRD.
One option is to
However, since charters are
not available, it would cost approximately $1,000,000 annually to maintain an
additional vessel at Kwajalein.
During the first few years it is estimated
that, with the program as described herein, the ship would not be used by any
new group of investigators for more than 3 to 4 months of the year to collect
baseline information and conduct regular sampling.
It could be idle during
the rest of the years unless supplementary charters could be found.
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