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Albatross IV makes its final approach Nov 14, 2008, returning to Woods Hole after completing the last leg of the 2008 fall bottom trawl survey. (Credit: Teri Frady/NOAA) |
Dr. Victor Loosanoff and his wife at the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Laboratory in Milford, CT, circa 1925. (Credit: Paul Galtsoff/NOAA)
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| Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior (center), and Woods Hole Laboratory Director Herbert Graham (right) tour the Woods Hole Science Aquarium on the day of the Albatross IV commissioning (May 9, 1963) at which Udall makes the keynote speech. (Credit: Robert Brigham/NOAA) |
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| Dr. Paul Galtsoff in his laboratory in Woods Hole, Ma, circa 1963. (Credit: Robert Brigham/NOAA) |
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| Ruth Stoddard (right) during fish weighing operations on the Albatross IV. (Credit: Robert Brigham/NOAA) |
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| Setting the Yankee 36 net in the snow, Albatross IV, circa 1966. (Credit: Robert Brigham/NOAA) |
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| Dr. Roland Wigley, head of the benthic investigation, 1965, Albatross IV cruise 65-11. Credit: Robert Brigham/NOAA |
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| Job Corps trainees admire a large cod on the deck of the Albatross IV, 1966. Credit: Robert Brigham/NOAA |
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| Sam Nickerson launching a nansen bottle from the original portable hero platform on the Albatross IV, which was hinged to the top of the bulkwark rail, circa 1966 Credit: Robert Brigham/NOAA |
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| From the Albatross IV, Dr. Richard Hennemuth (left) greets the Soviet vessel Albatros on Sept 18, 1967 on its arrival in Woods Hole to initiate the Joint US/USSR fishery research program. (Credit: Robert Brigham/NOAA) |
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| Vice president and presidential candidate Hubert H. Humphrey (right center) visits the Woods Hole Lab and tours the Albatross IV, summer 1968. To his right, lab director Herbert Graham and director emeritus Paul S. Galtsoff (just stepping off the gangplank) Credit: Robert Brigham/NOAA |
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| At US Coast Guard Station Woods Hole, newsmen interview Fisheries laboratory director Robert Edwards, Soviet research vessel Blesk in the background, 1968 Credit: NOAA |
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| Soviet factory trawler on Georges Bank, circa 1970. (Credit: NOAA) |
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1962
Apr 19: The Albatross IV is launched into Bayou Bonfouca at the Southern Shipyard Corporation in Slidell, Louisiana. Dr Herbert Graham, Arthur Posgay and Jim Crossen of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Woods Hole and others witnessed the launching as the shipyard superintendant, Mr. Cunningham, dashed aboard to help plug up a leaking valve in the hull.
June 16: Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” begins its serialized run inThe New Yorker. In 1949, Carson and her literary agent Marie Rodell sailed out of Woods Hole, MA aboard the Albatross III as members of the scientific party, the first women to do so
Oct 1: NBC’s The Tonight Show broadcasts for the first time with Johnny Carson as host
Oct 22–Nov. 20: Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy denounces Soviet Union for secretly installing missile bases on Cuba and initiates a naval blockade of the island.
Oct 1962: The Albatross IV is fully outfitted and ready for delivery. In the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis, permission is received to allow Albatross IV safe passage around the Florida coast and up the East Coast to Woods Hole, MA
Oct 1962: Victor Loosanoff, the father of American shellfish hatcheries, leaves his long-time position as director of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Lab at Milford, CT for the Bureau’s Tiburon Laboratory
Nov 22: Albatross IV arrives in Woods Hole, Thanksgiving Day, foul weather
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Stranger on the Shore by Mr. Acker Bilk
1963
Apr 8: 36th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Tom Jones
May 9: Albatross IV commissioned and dedicated by Secretary of Interior Stewart Udall in ceremonies at Woods Hole, MA
Source: Commercial Fisheries Review 25:8 (June) 48-50
May 13: Albatross IV sets off on its first assignment, to collect quantitative samples of Georges Bank sea scallops
Source: Commercial Fisheries Review 25:8 (June) 48-50
May 27: Albatross IV leaves Boston Harbor for Washington, D.C. and a series of V.I.P. tours (May 28-29), a public Open House (May 30-June 2), and a press tour/demonstration cruise (June 3-6)
Source: USFWS/BCF Activity report Demo Cruise 63-2
June 10: Congress passes a law mandating equal pay for women
August 28: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech before a crowd of 200,000 during the civil rights March on Washington, DC
Nov 13: Albatross IV commences its first Fall bottom trawl survey of the northeast continental shelf (Cruise 63-7), completing 188 stations
Source: USFWS/BCF Operational cruise report
Nov 22: President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Tex.
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Sugar Shack by Jimmy Glimmer & the Fireballs
1964
Jan 11: US Surgeon General issues “Smoking and Health” an advisory report linking smoking to a range of health problems including lung cancer, bronchitis, and emphysema as well as a higher mortality rates among smokers when compared to non-smokers
Ap 24: Fishery Bulletin accepts for publication Paul S. Galtsoff’s major work, The American Oyster
Apr 13: 37th annual Academy Awards, best picture: My Fair Lady
July 2: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act
Mar 7: State troopers attack peaceful demonstrators led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., as they try to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Ala
May: The fisheries research vessel Delaware, under construction in South Portland, ME, caught fire in the ship yard and was destroyed. Its replacement is named the Delaware II
Aug 2: North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegedly attack a U.S. destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam
Aug 6: President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices
Aug 11-16: In six days of rioting in Watts, a predominantly African-American section of Los Angeles, 35 people are killed and 883 injured
Nov 10-25: First women sail on Albatross IV as part of the scientific complement: Ruth Stoddard, technician, and Lisbeth Francis, student from Antioch College
Source: Falmouth Enterprise Nov 10, 1964
Cruise 64013
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: I Want To Hold Your Hand by The Beatles
1965
Jan 20: Lyndon Johnson's second inauguration
Apr: Long-time NEFSC plankton researcher John Sibunka (ret. 2007, more than 3,500 sea days) sails on Albatross IV for the first time, as a student bridge cadet from Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute
Apr 5: 38th annual Academy Awards, best picture: The Sound of Music
July 25: Bob Dylan goes electric at the Newport Jazz Festival; booed, he does not return to the event for 37 years and then appears in a wig and fake beard.
Aug 13: The Beatles arrive in New York City to commence their first US tour, appear on the Ed Sullivan Show, and sell-out Shea Stadium
Oct 30: The mini-skirt makes an international splash at Derby Day in Melbourne, Australia on the back of British supermodel Jean Shrimpton.
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Wooly Bully by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
1966
Apr 18: 39th annual Academy Awards (first to be broadcast in color), best picture: A Man for All Seasons
June: Bilateral meetings between the US and USSR in Boston form the basis for the 10-year program of joint scientific cruises between the Albatross IV and various vessels of the USSR in the Northwest Atlantic. The project is intended to better match survey and fishery data for use in establishing the quotas used to manage fisheries in international waters off the Northwest Atlantic
June 5-11: At the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries (ICNAF) in Madrid, the US raises the issue of escalating USSR fishing effort on Georges Bank (6,031 mt in 1964, more than 90,000 mt in 1965). ICNAF decides to take up effort control among member nations
Source: USFWS Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Annual Report for calendar year 1966
Oct 14: Congress passes the 12-Mile Fishery Jurisdiction Act extending fishery jurisdiction to a 9-mile zone contiguous with the 3-mile U.S. territorial seas
Source: USFWS Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Annual Report for calendar year 1966
Oct 15: Congress amends the Resources and Engineering Act to provide for the National Sea Grant College and Program Act of 1966
Source: USFWS Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Annual Report for calendar year 1966
Oct 17-21: At its annual meeting, the meeting of the ICNAF Working Group for Biological and Economic Assessments starts to work on evaluating various conservation measures for use in North Atlantic fisheries
Source: USFWS Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Annual Report for calendar year 1966
June 19: Near Corsair Canyon the Albatross IV encounters the English Rose III, a dory containing two R.A.F. paratroopers, John Ridgway and Chay Blythe, who had just set off from Chatham in a transatlantic rowing race. The Albatross IV gives the dorymen a fresh set of batteries. Ridgway and Blyth win their race, making Kilronan, Aran, Ireland on Sept. 3
June 13: Miranda v. Arizona: This landmark Supreme Court decision further defines due process clause of Fourteenth Amendment, requiring police to inform persons in custody of their Constitutional rights of due process before asking guilt-seeking questions
Sep 6: The television series Star Trek premiers on NBC
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: The Ballad of the Green Berets by S/Sgt Barry Sadler
1967
Apr 10: 40th annual Academy Awards, best picture: In the Heat of the Night
Apr 17: The last episode of Gilligan’s Island airs, castaways still stranded
June 5-7: At its annual meeting in Boston, ICNAF creates a new statistical area—SA6—extending from the convention area to Cape Hatteras
Source: USFWS Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Annual Report for calendar year 1967
Oct 9-18: Although it is not a member, the U.S. sends observers to the annualmeeting of the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) owing to the organization’s recent move to broaden its charter to include the entire Atlantic Ocean, with emphasis on the North Atlantic
Source: USFWS Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Annual Report for calendar year 1967
Aug 29: Richard Kimball finally catches the one-armed man in the series finale of The Fugitive on ABC
Sep 11: The Soviet vessel Albatros arrives in Woods Hole to begin joint research cruises with the Albatross IV
Source: commemorative program for 10th anniversary of the joint research effort.
Sep 18: The NEFSC R/V Albatross IV and the Soviet R/V Albatros set out for the first joint U.S.-Soviet research cruise, a plankton survey. This program was established under the 1967 bilateral fishery management agreements between the two countries for research on certain commercially important species of the northwest Atlantic. The program continues for 10 years comprising about 50 cruises.
Source: Commemorative Program “US USSR joint fisheries research in the northwest Atlantic, 1967-1976.” Nov 1, 1976
Oct 17- Nov 4: The first US-USSR joint survey groundfish survey, Cape Hatteras to Nantucket Shoals
Source: Commemorative Program “US USSR joint fisheries research in the northwest Atlantic, 1967-1976.” Nov 1, 1976
Nov 25: At ICNAF’s annual meeting, the US and USSR agree that the USSR will not fish during Jan-Mar in a 4,700 square mile area south of Long Island, and will not increase catch in the Mid-Atlantic Bight in 1968
Source: USFWS Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Annual Report for calendar year 1967
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: To Sir With Love by Lulu
1968
Jan 30-Sep 23: The North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong launch the Tet Offensive, attacking Saigon and other key cities in South Vietnam
Mar 16: American soldiers kill 300 Vietnamese villagers in My Lai
Apr 4: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, TN
Apr 10: 41st annual Academy Awards, best picture: Oliver!
June 6: Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, CA
July 12-27: NEFSC women scientists Jean St Onge Burns, Judy Penttila, and Brenda Byrd participate in a gear comparison cruise on the Albatross IV
Source: Cruise report 68-10
Sep 19: The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiers on ABC
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Hey Jude by The Beatles
1969
Jan 9: New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath correctly predicts a win over heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Superbowl III in a appearance at the Miami Touchdown Club: "We're gonna win the game. I guarantee it."
Jan 20: Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president
Apr 14: 42nd annual Academy Awards, best picture: Midnight Cowboy
Apr 11: Marvin D. Grosslein documents for the first time the procedures, methods, and survey sampling design for the NEFSC standardized bottom-trawl survey
Source: Grosslein, MD. 1969. Groundfish survey methods. Woods Hole, MA: USFWS/BCF. Woods Hole Laboratory Reference Document 69-2.
June 2-7: In Warsaw, at its annual meeting, ICNAF imposes a spawning area closure on Georges Bank and Browns and Banks, and imposes annual quotas on haddock and hake
Source: USFWS Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Annual Report for calendar year 1967
July 14 – 25: NEFSC women scientists Jean St Onge Burns, Susan Anderson, Judy Penttila and Pat Gerrior participate in the summer bottom trawl survey
Source: Cruise report for (69-8)
July 20: Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to land on the Moon
Sep 26: The Brady Bunch premiers on ABC
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Sugar, Sugar by The Archies
1970
Jan 31: The USF&WS decides to lay up the Albatross IV for the calendar year owing to budget cuts. The move is expected to save $250,000 in required overhaul costs as well as $400,000 in operating costs. Funding is recovered and the Albatross IV cruises in this year.
Cape Cod Standard Times, Jan 31
Mar 29: Last U.S. troops leave Vietnam
Apr 7: 43rd annual Academy Awards, best picture: Patton
May 1: Kent State shootings
Oct 8: President Richard Nixon issues Executive Order 15801, creating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and transferring the USFWS Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and the saltwater labs of the Bureau of Sport Fish & Wildlife to the new agency. The former USFWS bureaus are combined and hereafter known as the National Marine Fisheries Service
Dec 2: The Environmental protection Agency is created to comprehensively regulate the pollutants which harm human health and degrade the environment
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkle
1971
Jan 12: All in the Family premiers on CBS
Apr 15: 44th annual Academy Awards, best picture: The French Connection
July 1: 26th amendment is ratified, lowering voting age to 18
July: The Program Development Plan for the NMFS Marine Resources Monitoring Assessment and Prediction (MARMAP) Program is accepted by Dr. Robert White, first NOAA Administrator, as a national focus for marine resource management within coastal waters of the United States
Sept 29- Oct 14: NEFSC women scientists Pat Gerrior, Pat Loners and Jean St Onge Burns participate on the fall bottom trawl survey
Source: Cruise report 71-6
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Joy to the World by Three Dog Night
1972
Feb 21-27: Nixon visits communist China
Feb 23-Mar 3: Albatross IV sails on a cod, haddock and pollock survey with four NEFSC women scientists: Pat Gerrior, Louise Dery, Susan Eddy and Patricia Loners
Source: Cruise report 72-1
Apr 10: 45th annual Academy Awards, best picture: The Godfather
June 17: five employees of Nixon’s re-election team are caught breaking into Democratic headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
Sept 17: The television show M*A*S*H premiers
Dec 7: Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, is launched
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: The First time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack
1973
Jan 16: The last episode of Bonanza airs on NBC
Jan 20: Nixon's second inauguration
Jan 22: Roe v. Wade, a landmark supreme court decision legalizes abortion in first trimester of pregnancy
Mar 27: 46th annual Academy Awards, best picture: The Sting
June: The NEFSC reports serious overfishing to ICNAF, which leads to an agreement among all ICNAF countries to reduce catch. This is the first time an international agreement has been reached to reduce fishing in an area. The analysis relies heavily on data collected during the resources surveys conducted by the Albatross IV and Delaware II
Source: ICNAF Res. Doc. 78-3 “An evaluation of the effects of fishing on the total finfish biomass in ICNAF subarea 1 and statistical area 6, with corriagenda.”
Report of the National Marine Fisheries Service for the Calendar Year 1974
May 17: televised Congressional hearings into the Watergate cover-up begin
July 22: Pat Gerrior is the first woman biological sampler ever assigned to a U.S. North Atlantic port (New Bedford)
Source: Standard-Times Dec 15, 1974
Oct. 10: Vice president Spiro Agnew resigns over corruption and tax evasion charges
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree by Tony Orlando & Dawn
1974
Oct 1: Research vessels of NMFS are integrated into the NOAA fleet under the National Ocean Service/Office of Fleet Operations
Source: Report of the National Marine Fisheries Service for the Calendar Year 1974
Apr 2: 47th annual Academy Awards, best picture: The Godfather Part II
June 28: Albatross IV begins first-ever survey for deep-sea red crab on the Northeast continental shelf
Source: Marine Fisheries Review 31:8(August):1-21
Aug 9: Nixon resigns
Sept. 8, 1974: President Gerald Ford pardons Richard Nixon
Oct. 15: Five former Nixon aides go on trial for their involvement in the Watergate cover-up
Dec 31: The U.S. withdraws from ICNAF, the treaty organization that had governed fishing in international waters off the Northeast U.S. since 1951
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: The Way We Were by Barbra Streisand
1975
Apr 8: 48th annual Academy Awards, best picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Apr 20: North Vietnamese forces capture Saigon, marking an end to the Vietnam War
May 5-12: The Albatross IV sails for the first time with a scientific party led by a woman chief scientist, Linda Despres, and in which women outnumber men, 8 to 6. The group of women in the complement are dubbed the “Magnificent Seven”: Anne Tibbetts, Elizabeth Bevacqua, Evelyn Howe, Susan Peterson, Margaret Campbell, Susan Peterson, and Alison King. Also in the party: Doug Lawson, Gordon Waring, Robert Livingstone, Hugh Oldham, Milton Palmer, and Otis Jackson
Source: Linda Despres, personal communication
Cape Cod Times Sept 14, 1981
Cruise report 75-12
June 30: U.S. Labor Leader James “Jimmy” Hoffa disappears
Sept 1: The series finale of Gunsmoke airs on CBS
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Love Will Keep Us Together by Captain and Tennille
1976
Jan 20: Jimmy Carter is sworn in as president of the United States
Mar 29: 49th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Rocky
Apr 13: The federal Fishery Conservation and Management Act (the Magnuson Act) is signed into law, creating a 200-mile exclusive economic zone around the US shoreline, and laying out the process by which U.S. offshore fisheries will be managed. This law also fundamentally changes the National Marine Fisheries Service, making it into a regulatory as well as science agency.
Sept. 7: U.S. signs treaty turning control of Panama Canal to Panama in Sept. 1999
Sept. 23: Dallas premiers on CBS
Oct 1: A team comprising Soviet scientists and crew from the research vessel Belogorsk, participating in the joint US/USSR research cruises, plays a soccer game against cadets of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The game ends in a tie, 3-3, as did the 1975 game between the Belogorsk team and the Falmouth Elks (4-4).
Source: Commemorative Program “US USSR joint fisheries research in the northwest Atlantic, 1967-1976.” Nov 1, 1976
Nov 1: In Woods Hole, ceremonies, a special performance by principals of the Boston Ballet, and a reception commemorate the tenth year of the US-USSR joint scientific survey effort in the Northwest Atlantic. More than 60 scientific papers result from this partnership, many with both US and Soviet authors
Source: Commemorative Program “US USSR joint fisheries research in the northwest Atlantic, 1967-1976.” Nov 1, 1976
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Silly Love Songs by Paul McCartney & Wings
1977
Dec 15: The oil tanker Argo Merchant runs aground on Fishing Rip, 29 nautical miles southeast of Nantucket Island. Most of her 7.7 million gallon cargo of No. 6 fuel oil is released when the ship breaks in half on Dec 21.
Dec 22: The Delaware II makes the first of two cruises (76-13 and 77-01) to sample fish and squid in the area of the Argo Merchant oil spill to document long-term effects on Georges Bank fishes.
Source: Bowman, RE and RW Langton. 1977. Fish predation on oil-contaminated prey from the region of the Argo Merchant oil spill. In: In the Wake of the ARGO MERCHANT. Proceedings of a Symposium held Jan 11-13, 1978, p. 137-141. Kingston, RI: Center for Ocean Management Studies.
Mar 28: 50th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Annie Hall
Sept: Bradford Brown and Stephen Clark of the NOAA Fisheries Service Woods Hole Laboratory publish a paper documenting the scale of overfishing by the international fleet off New England, 1963-1974, relying heavily on data collected during the standardized bottom trawl survey conducted by the Albatross IV
Source: Brown BE and SH Clark. 1977. Changes in biomasses of finfish and squid from the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras, 1963-1974, as determined from research vessel survey data. Fish. Bull. 75(1):1-21
Aug 1-Sep 1: The Albatross IV conducts cruise 77-07 in the area off Nantucket where the Argo Merchant ran aground and spilled millions of gallons of fuel oil on Dec 21
Source: Bowman, RE and RW Langton. 1977. Fish predation on oil-contaminated prey from the region of the Argo Merchant oil spill. In: In the Wake of the ARGO MERCHANT. Proceedings of a Symposium held Jan 11-13, 1978, p. 137-141. Kingston, RI: Center for Ocean Management Studies.
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Tonight’s the Night by Rod Stewart
1978
Sept. 17: Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin sign Camp David Accord, ending 30-year conflict between Egypt and Israel
Apr 3: 51st annual Academy Awards, best picture: The Deer Hunter
June 11: Judy Brennan Hoskins, a promising researcher at the Woods Hole Laboratory of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, dies suddenly. The Center’s honor award given to an outstanding young scientist is named for her. Anne Tibbetts Lange is its first recipient in August 1979
Source: Obituary submitted to NOAA News by NEFSC director Robert Edwards, July 14, 1978
NEFSC News Release “Fisheries Award Winner” Aug. 15, 1979
Billboard #1 Song: Shadow Dancing by Andy Gibb
1979
Mar. 28: A malfunction at Three-Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania causes near meltdown
Mar 29: The US and Canada sign several agreements related to fisheries and the international boundary between the two nations in the Gulf of Maine. The so-called “Comprehensive East Coast Fishery Resources Agreement” included a fishery commission to provide management, access, and sharing arrangements between the two nations for about 30 commercial stocks of interest to both countries
Source: Report of the National Marine Fisheries Service for the Calendar Year 1979
Apr 9: 52nd annual Academy Awards, best picture:Kramer vs. Kramer
May 3: President Carter transmits the Comprehensive East Coast Fishery Resources Agreement to Congress for approval
Source: Report of the National Marine Fisheries Service for the Calendar Year 1979
May 25: Albatross IV begins first leg of cruise 79-04, the first in the time series of annual, standardize sea scallop survey.
Source: Cruise Report 79-04
Aug 23: Paul S. Galtsoff, director emeritus of the NEFSC Woods Hole Laboratory dies at the age of 92. An internationally revered expert on mollusks, he began his career as the original naturalist of the R/V Albatross, retired in 1964, and remained a guest investigator until 1971, authoring many primary works including “The American Oyster.”
Obituary submitted to NOAA News by Jon A. Gibson, August 24, 1979
Nov. 4: Iranian students storm U.S. embassy in Teheran and hold 66 people hostage
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: My Sharona by The Knack
Dec 31: 12,000 stomachs from 16 species were collected for processing this year during resource cruises conducted by the NEFSC
Dec 31: 60,000 age determinations for 11 species were completed by the NEFSC
Source: Report of the National Marine Fisheries Service for the Calendar Year 1979
1980
Jan 20: President Carter announces that U.S. athletes will not attend Summer Olympics in Moscow unless Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan
Feb 4: The Albatross IV sails with women in its crew complement for the first time: Kathy Bowden, messman and Helen Gordon, survey technician
Mar: NEFSC researcher Don Flescher provides a key to 189 fish commonly caught on the NEFSC bottom trawl survey.
Source: Flescher, DD. 1980. Guide to some trawl-caught marine fishes from Maine to North Carolina. NOAA Technical Report NMFS Circular 431
Apr 14: 53rd annual Academy Awards, best picture: Ordinary People
Apr 21: J.R. Ewing is shot on the season finale of the television series Dallas, sparking a nationwide summer-long frenzy of speculation on the identity of the shooter
Apr. 25: U.S. mission to rescue hostages in Iran is aborted after a helicopter and cargo plane collide at the staging site in a remote part of Iran and 8 servicemen are killed
May 18: Mt. St. Helens, a volcano in Washington State, erupts, spilling ash over 11 western states, and precipitating damage that killed 57 people and caused nearly $3 billion in damages
Sep 23: The Albatross IV holds an Open House in Woods Hole, commemorating the 10th anniversary of NOAA, 1980 as the “Year of the Coast”, and supplementing a week-long (Sep 22-26) meeting of 500 international oceanographers in the village as part of the Third International Congress on the History of Oceanography.
Source: NEFSC News Release, Sep 16, 1980
Sept : The NEFSC publishes first annual report of the Northeast Monitoring Program, a multiagency effort to monitor ocean pollutants and their effect on living marine resource that used both the Albatross IV and Delaware II as platforms
Source: NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-F/NEC-10
Dec: Bradford Brown and Margaret McBride publish the first summary status of important commercial fishery resources off the Northeast U.S., made possible by the annual bottom-trawl surveys of the Albatross IV. The document is periodically updated, and is now commonly known as “SOS”, or, the status of the stocks
Source: NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-F/NEC-5
Dec 8: John Lennon is murdered in New York City by Mark David Chapman
Dec 15: The NEFSC publishes a technical memorandum summarizing the present status of important commercial fish species off the Northeastern United States. This is the first in an ongoing annual summary published in succeeding years.
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Call Me by Blondie
1981
Jan 15: Hill Street Blues premiers on NBC
Jan 20: Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th president
Jan. 20: U.S. hostages held in Iran are released after 444 days in captivity
Mar 6: The US/Canada Comprehensive East Coast Fishery Resources Agreement is withdrawn by both countries after the new US administration fails to support it. Other agreements on the delineation of a boundary go forward, and are approved by both nations before seeking international approval through the International Court of Justice.
Source: RH Backus and Bourne, DW, eds. 1987. Georges Bank. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Address by the U.S. Ambassador to Canada on Feb 25, 1982. The Empire Club of Canada Speeches 1981-1982 (Toronto, Canada: The Empire Club Foundation, 1982) pp. 288- 300.
Mar 20: President Reagan is shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr.
Mar 6: Walter Cronkite retires after 19 years as the anchor for The CBS Evening News
Mar 31: 54th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Chariots of Fire
May 18: Paul S. Galtsoff’s family awards his extensive collection of 5400 research papers on marine mollusks to the University of Rhode Island.
Source: NEFSC News Release May 18, 1981
Aug: Harold Marshall and Myra Cohn publish the first of several papers on the broadscale composition and distribution of phytoplankton on the Northeast continental shelf. It is the first such attempt to provide a comprehensive picture, and relies heavily on the joint US/USSR research survey data
Source: NOAA NMFS-F/NEC-8, 9, 15,
Sept. 25: Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court justice
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes
1982
Mar 29: 55th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Gandhi
Nov. 13: The nation’s Vietnam Veteran’s War Memorial dedicated in Washington D.C., designed by 21-year-old Chinese-American architectural student Maya Lin
Dec 7: NEFSC researchers announce that numbers of 2+-year-old haddock (sizes available to fishery) have declined by nearly 64 percent in one year and warn that continued high fishing effort will compromise the resource
Source: NEFSC News Release 82-03, Dec 7, 1982
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Physical by Olivia Newton-John
1983
Apr 11: 56th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Terms of Endearment
Aug 22: NMFS Northeast Regional Administrator and acting NEFSC director Allen E. Peterson, Jr., is sworn in as one of three US commissioners to the newly created North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO)
Source: NEFSC News Release 83-10, August 23, 1980
Dec 9: NEFSC researchers announce that sea scallop populations off the Northeastern US are at the lowest levels since surveys began in 1975, and that a small population of Icelandic scallops were found off Cape Cod. Findings rely heavily on sea scallop surveys conducted by the Albatross IV
Source: NEFSC News Release 83-15, Dec 9, 1983
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Every Breath You Take by The Police
1984
Jan 22-28: The NEFSC renews its program of sending biologists on cooperating commercial fishing vessels to sample catch, planning 26 trips out of various ports from Rockland, Maine to Hampton, Vir. The program coordinator is Thurston Burns.
Source: NEFSC News Release 84-01, Jan 20, 1984
Mar 10: NOAA’s Year of the Oceans commences on the anniversary of the US declaration of a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. The Narragansett and Gloucester laboratories participate in Ocean Science Day, a kick-off event
Source: NEFSC News Release 84-02 Mar 64
June 30-July 1: The Albatross IV holds an open house in Gloucester as part of the town’s annual St. Peter’s Fiesta
Source: NEFSC News Release 84-09, June 25, 1984
Sept 20: The Cosby Show premiers on NBC
Oct 3: Barry Commoner, prominent environmental scientist and author, delivers the keynote address at the Walford Memorial Convocation at Sandy Hook, NJ, the sixth in an annual series of workshops on the lower Hudson and Raritan Estuary honoring Lionel L. Walford.
Source: NEFSC News Release 84-11, Sep 11, 1984
Oct 12: The International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands hands down a final decision delineating the international maritime boundary between the US and Canada in the Gulf of Maine, commonly known in the Northeast today as The Hague Line.
Apr 9: 57th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Amadeus
May 24: The first symposium was held on a new concept--large marine ecosystems (LMEs), introduced by Ken Sherman of the Lab and L. Alexander of the University of Rhode Island.
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: When Doves Cry by Prince & the Revolution
1985
Jan. 21: Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration
Mar 25: 58th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Out of Africa
Aug 13-16: The NEFSC Woods Hole Lab begins to celebrate the centennial of its permanent laboratory in the village
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Careless Whisper by Wham!/George Michael
September 21: An arsonist sets a fire that destroys the NEFSC Sandy Hook laboratory building that housed the research aquarium facilities, many research records, and the library
1986
Jan 8: Based on surveys conducted by the Albatross IV, NEFSC researchers announce that large numbers of young sea scallops have appeared on Georges Bank and of the Mid-Atlantic and note that protection of these animals from harvest could reverse the seven-year decline in sea scallop populations within one year
Source: NEFSC News Release 86-02, Jan 8, 1986
Jan 28: Space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members
Mar 24: 59th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Platoon
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: That’s What Friends Are For by Dionne Warwick
1987
Mar 30: 60th annual Academy Awards, best picture: The Last Emperor
June 12: In a speech in Berlin, President Reagan challenges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” and open Eastern Europe to political and economic reform
June 27: Albatross IV serves as the platform for returning three young pilot whales to the ocean following their rehabilitation at the New England Aquarium after stranding on Cape Cod in Dec 1986, the first known operation of its kind
Nov 13: The NEFSC marks the 25th anniversary of the institution’s resource survey program conducted largely by the Albatross IV
Source: NEFSC News Release 87-07, Nov 13, 1987
Dec 30: Following years of unsuccessful litigation by New York and New Jersey, the EPA closes the 12-Mile Sewage Sludge Dumpsite in the New York Bight, in part on the basis of information provided by the Sandy Hook Laboratory, which continued to study the site and the recovery its habitat and marine organisms in a multi-year project.
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Walk Like an Egyptian by The Bangles
1988
Mar: The results of a thorough review of the NEFSC bottom-trawl survey (1963-1986) procedures and methods are published, with recommendations for ways to increase precision and reduce variability
Source: NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-F/NEC-52
Apr 11: 61st annual Academy Awards, best picture: Rain Man
Oct 18: NEFSC researchers announce that during 1987, Georges Bank cod were subject to the highest fishing mortality rate ever recorded, estimating that approximately 70 percent of all fish alive at the beginning of 1987 did not survive to the beginning of 1988
Source: NEFSC News Release 88-03, Oct. 18, 1988
Aug: The NEFSC publishes the first comprehensive review of ichthyoplankton survey data collected from 1977-1987, during which time some 25,000 plankton samples were collected for study. Survey platforms included both the Albatross IV and Delaware II, as well as partner vessels from the US/USSR research survey program
NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-F/NEC-57
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Faith by George Michael
1989
Jan 1: Albatross IV is deactivated in anticipation of replacement vessel and in the face of significant required repairs and upgrades to continue safe operation
Source: NEFSC News Release 91-09, Nov 20, 1991
Jan 20: George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the 41st president
Mar 24: Oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound off Alaska, spilling more than 10 million gallons of oil
Mar 29: 62nd annual Academy Awards, a best picture: Driving Miss Daisy
May: Judy Pentilla, Gary Nelson, and Jay Burnett publish guidelines for estimating the lengths at age for 18 northwest Atlantic finfish and shellfish, relying heavily on age structures collected by the Albatross IV and Delaware II, and processed at the NEFSC
Source: NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-F/NEC-66
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Look Away by Chicago
October 11: A groundbreaking ceremony is held for a state-of-the art laboratory facility for oceanic and estuarine marine research to replace the NEFSC Sandy Hook facility destroyed by fire.
1990
Mar 26: 63rd annual Academy Awards, best picture: Dances With Wolves
May 25: The NEFSC announces formation of a Marine Mammal Investigation, first headed by Tim D. Smith
Source: NEFSC News Release 90-04
May 31: Seinfeld premiers on NBC
Aug 2: Iraqi troops invade Kuwait, leading to the Persian Gulf War
October 1: The first international conference on large marine ecosystems was convened in Monaco, beginning a world-wide project to identify LMEs, a concept introduced by Ken Sherman of the Narragansett lab in 1984
Source: NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-F/NEC-91
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Hold On by Wilson Phillips
1991
Jan. 16-Feb 28: U.S. leads international coalition in the Persian Gulf War, (code named “Desert Storm”) to drive Iraqis out of Kuwait
Mar 3: Los Angeles resident Rodney King is beaten by police officers following a chase over a traffic violation. The event is videotaped by a bystander and released to media.
Mar 25: 64th annual Academy Awards, best picture: The Silence of the Lambs
Apr 6: Iraq accepts terms of UN ceasefire, marking an end of the Persian Gulf War
June 18-19: At a symposium organized for the purpose, Sandy Hook staff report the results of a four-year study into the recovery of marine life and habitat at the 12-mile dumpsite off New Jersey.
Oct 30-Nov 1: “The Perfect Storm” made famous by Sebastian Junger’s book. The Delaware II was on Georges Bank. Don Byrd, Ship’s electrician recalled: “I remember I was down in radio room and `Jose Riviera, who was navigation officer was in the chart room just above me and you could see the storm coming across the water. We had some scientist begging Capt Carl Berman to put them ashore so they wouldn't die. We had ice building up on the hull and it was pretty nasty, but we finally made it into Nova Scotia for a few days to lick our wounds.”
Source: Commemorative program for Albatross IV decommissioning, Nov. 21, 2008
Nov 24: Albatross IV returns to Woods Hole after undergoing a $1 million repair and retrofit. Deactivated in 1989, a pressing need for its services led to its reactivation by 1992
Source: NEFSC News Release 91-09, Nov 20, 1991
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: (Everything I Do) I Do It For You by Brian Adams
Commemorative program for Albatross IV decommissioning, Nov. 21, 2008
1992
Feb 1: President Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin meet at Camp David and formally declare an end to the cold war
Mar 30: 65th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Unforgiven
Apr 29: The acquittal of four white police officers charged in the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King in Los Angeles sets off several days of rioting, leading to more than 50 deaths, thousands of injuries and arrests, and $1 billion in property damage
May 18: A large interdisciplinary team of scientists begins the first large-scale ecosystem study of Georges Bank, part of an international effort to understand global ocean ecosystem dynamics (GLOBEC)
May 22: NBC’s The Tonight Show broadcasts for the last time with Johnny Carson as host
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: End of the Road by Boyz II Men
1993
Jan 20: Bill Clinton is inaugurated as the 42nd president
Feb 26: First World Trade Center bombing kills 6, injures 1,000 and causes more than $500 million in damage
Mar 12-14: the Storm of the Century hits, a massive storm that affects the entire East Coast, causing tornados, heavy rain, blizzards, and leaving 2.5 million people without power. In the midst of the Spring bottom trawl survey, the Albatross IV takes shelter in Morehead City, NC
Source: Commemorative program for Albatross IV decommissioning, Nov. 21, 2008
Mar 29: 66th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Schindler’s List
July 23: NEFSC begins testing computer notepads to record data on resource surveys, a first step in developing a completely digitized system to replace manual pen-and-pad entry of data
Source: NEFSC News Release 93-7
Sept 11: a ragged-tooth shark, Odontaspis ferox (Risso), was captured during routine bottom trawl survey operations aboard the Albatross IV, the first record of this animal off the U.S. Atlantic coast.
October 6: The new NMFS/NEFSC facility at Sandy Hook, NJ, the James J. Howard Laboratory, is officially dedicated, eight years after destruction of the lab by fire.
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston
1994
Sept 22: Friends premiers on NBC
Mar 21: 67th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Forrest Gump
Apr 6: The Albatross IV returns to Woods Hole after a $3 million repair and upgrade have been completed
Source: NEFSC News Release 94-3
May 2-3: Ray Beverton, world-famed fishery biologist presents a series of three lectures in Woods Hole, the first stop in a nationwide tour sponsored by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service
Source: NEFSC News Release 94-4
NOAA TM-F/SPO-54, May 2, 2002
May 31-June 10: The first official field work of The U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank Program began in Spring, and the third cruise was the first for which the Albatross IV served as a research platform. Over the life the study, the Albatross IV conducted 25 cruises and Delaware II conducted one (119 cruises were conducted in all.)
Source: US GLOBEC cruise reports
http://www.usglobec.org
July 13: The NEFSC Population Dynamics Branch receives a NOAA Unit Citation for outstanding work in fish stock assessment
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: The Sign by Ace of Base
1995
Mar: NEFSC staffers Russell A. Meredith and Ann Reed retire from the New York City Office of Market News with more than 90 years of combined federal service
Mar 27: 68th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Braveheart
Apr 19: Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal office building in Oklahoma City kills 168 people
May 1: The Oxford, MD laboratory of the NEFSC is transferred to the Southeast Fisheries Science Center
June 1995: The Gloucester Laboratory of the NEFSC, site of the nation's first seafood technology lab, is closed, its functions transferred to the NMFS/SEFSC laboratory at Beaufort, NC
July 1: The first large marine ecosystem project funded by the World Bank and the Global Environmental Facility is instituted for the marine resources of the Gulf of Guinea. The scientific party is led by Ken Sherman, Ambrose Jearld (NEFSC) and Brad Brown (SEFSC)
July 21: The USS Constitution, the nation's oldest warship, celebrates its 200th birthday by sailing under its own power for the first time in 116 years. Albatross IV is one of many vessels invited to participate in the birthday celebration
July 11: U.S. establishes full diplomatic relations with Vietnam
July 27: A bombing in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta GA during the XXVI Olympiad kills 2 and injures 111. It is the first of four engineered by Eric Rudolph a former Army explosives expert.
Dec 16: Budget standoff between President Clinton and Congress results in partial shutdown of U.S. government that lasts until Jan 6, 1996
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Gansta’s Paradise by Coolio/L.V.
1996
January 24: During a storm, the tank barge North Cape runs aground on Moonstone Beach in southern RI and spills 828,000 gallons of home heating oil into Block Island Sound. The NOAA Ship Albatross IV is diverted from a groundfish survey to sample marine life at the site in order to provide a baseline against which to measure recovery.
Mar 25: 69th annual Academy Awards, best picture: The English Patient
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Macarena by Los Del Rio
1997
Jan 20: President Bill Clinton’s second inauguration
Mar 24: 70th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Titanic
July: NOAA Fisheries scientists report first progress toward rebuilding for Georges Bank groundfish stocks, noting improvements in the weight of the spawning stocks for cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder
September 27-28: the U.S. hosts the annual meeting of the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES), in Baltimore, MD, Sept 25-Oct 3. NOAA Fisheries NEFSC and the National Science Foundation do most of the work organizing the meeting. The Albatross IV is escorted into Baltimore Harbor by a fire ship and is available for public inspection on Sept 27-28
November--New England Fishery Management Council committee confirms that for the first time in more than 20 years, Georges Bank stocks are not being overfished, however concern is developing over lack of success in producing young fish as a result of spawning stock biomass increases.
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Candle in the Wind/Something About the Way You Look Tonight by Elton John
1998
Feb 2: President Clinton releases 1999 federal budget plan; the first balanced budget since 1969
Mar 23: 71st annual Academy Awards, best picture: Shakespeare in Love
August: The NEFSC deploys its first all-female scientific party to sea on the annual marine mammal survey
Dec 19: The US House of Representatives votes to impeach President Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Too Close by Next
1999
Feb 12: Senate acquits President Bill Clinton of impeachment charges
Mar 29: 72nd annual Academy Awards, best picture: American Beauty
Apr 20: Shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., leave 14 students (including the 2 shooters) and 1 teacher dead and 23 others wounded
June 15: Commercial sea scallopers are allowed access to closed areas of Georges Bank for the first time since 1994. The opening was engineered in part through new cooperative research between industry and the NEFSC, and yields 6 million pounds of scallops
October 7: During the Fall bottom trawl survey, the Albatross IV retrieves a satellite buoy that had released from entangled right whale (#2030) 76 miles east of Barnegat Inlet, NJ. The skeleton of #2030 now hangs at the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, NY
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Believe by Cher
2000
Mar 26: 73rd annual Academy Awards, best picture: Gladiator
Apr 1: According to the census, the nation's population numbers more than 280 million
Mar 16: Station 1, Spring BTS—a few dozen stoppered bottles containing short bios and greetings from a second grade class in Navesink, New Jersey are deployed over the side of the Albatross IV. Thirteen months later one is retrieved on the coast of France, and four years later a second comes ashore in Cuba.
Nov. 7: Election day does not yield a clear winner in the close presidential election contest between Vice President Al Gore and Texas governor George W. Bush
Dec 12: The U.S. Supreme Court rules against a manual recount of ballots in certain Florida counties, and critics maintain that the court has in effect determined the outcome of the election
Dec 13: George W. Bush formally accepts the presidency, having won a slim majority in the electoral college but not a majority of the popular vote
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Breathe by Faith Hill
2001
Jan 20: George W. Bush is inaugurated as the 43rd president
Feb 16 & 17: Special issues of Science and Nature publish the working draft of the human genome sequence
Mar 25: 74th annual Academy Awards, best picture: A Beautiful Mind
Feb 28: In the Spring bottom trawl survey, the Fisheries Scientific Computer System (FSCS) goes live on the Albatross IV, revolutionizing the speed with which biological data is collected and audited
Sept. 11: Two hijacked jetliners ram twin towers of World Trade Center; a third hijacked plane flies into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashes in rural Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people die in the attacks
Oct. 7: U.S. and Britain launch air attacks against targets in Afghanistan after the government fails to turn over Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks
Oct 12: Ray Bowman, et al. publish “Food of Northwest Atlantic fishes and two common species of squid,” the first such comprehensive volume on these animals. The study relies heavily on stomach contents of 31,567 individuals representing 180 species collected from specimens obtained from the NEFSC bottom trawl survey.
Source: NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS NE 155
Nov. 28: NOAA receives $38.8 million to commence construction of the replacement vessel for the NOAA ship Albatross IV
Dec 9: the Afghan regime topples however, the hunt for bin Laden and other members of al-Qaeda terrorist organization continues.
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Hanging by a Moment by Lifehouse
2002
Mar 24: 75th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Chicago
May: the 3rd Edition of the classic work “Fishes of the Gulf of Maine” is published by the Smithsonian Press, edited by NEFSC scientists Bruce Collette and Grace Klein-MacPhee. In the preface, the editors describe the NEFSC bottom trawl survey, conducted largely by the Albatross IV, as producing “perhaps the best marine biodiversity database available anywhere.”
Dec: Albatross IV goes to Quonset Point RI for a major overhaul by Senesco Marine
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: How You Remind Me by Nickleback
2003
Feb 1: Space shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board
Mar 19: U.S. and allies comments war with Iraq
Mar 23: 76th annual Academy Awards, best picture: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
May 31: Eric Rudolph, domestic terrorist, is arrested in Murphy, NC by police officer Jeffrey Scott Postell of the Murphy Police Department as Rudolph scavenged for food in a garbage can behind a Save-A-Lot store
July: The Albatross IV returns to duty in Woods Hole after a major repair to extend life made by Senesco Marine in Rhode Island
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: In Da Club by 50 Cent
2004
Feb 29: 77th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Million Dollar Baby
June 28: The U.S. returns sovereignty to an interim government in Iraq, but maintains roughly 135,000 troops in the country to fight a growing insurgency
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Yeah! by Usher/featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris
2005
Jan 18: Albatross IV serves as the platform the first in a series of cruises in which the NEFSC partnered with the Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center as the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, an historically Black university. The effort is part of a larger one aimed at attracting undergraduates into marine science professions
Feb 27: 78th annual Academy Awards, best picture: Crash
Apr 12: Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) visits the Woods Hole Laboratory and tours the Albatross IV as it prepares to sail on an ecosystem monitoring cruise
August 29: Hurricane Katrina wreaks catastrophic damage on Mississippi and Louisiana; 80% of New Orleans is flooded
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: We Belong Together by Mariah Carey
2006
Mar 5: 79th annual Academy Awards, best picture: The Departed
Apr 2006: The Spring bottom trawl survey captures its first lionfish, a venomous invader from the Indo-Pacific, potentially adding the 955th species code to the survey database
Sept 1: After 29 years and more than 3,500 sea days, veteran sea-going scientist John Sibunka retires from the NEFSC Sandy Hook Laboratory. He is among the first volunteers to sail on the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow, replacement vessel for the Albatross IV
Oct. 17: The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the population of the United States has reached 300 million
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Bad Day by Daniel Powter
2007
Jan 4: California Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives
Feb 25: 80th annual Academy Awards, best picture: No Country for Old Men
Apr 16: Male student kills two in a Virginia Tech dorm, and 30 more in a classroom building before committing suicide, 15 others are wounded.
July 24: The minimum wage in the U.S. increases to $5.85, up from $5.15. It's the first increase in 10 years. The wage will increase 70 cents each year through 2009, when it reaches $7.25 an hour
Aug 11: Welcoming ceremony and Open House for thr NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow at Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, MA
Dec 31: Billboard #1 Song: Irreplaceable by Beyonce
2008
Nov 3: Albatross IV leaves Woods Hole on the last leg of the last bottom trawl survey to be conducted by the ship. Lab staff with flashlights and sparklers salute the ship as it transits the Cape Cod Canal from Buzzards Bay to Cape Cod Bay
Source: email from the chief scientist, Nov 3
Nov 7: Barack Obama is elected the nation’s 45th president, the first African-American to hold the post
Nov 14: Albatross IV terminates its final scientific assignment, arriving in Woods Hole having completed all stations of the 2008 Fall bottom trawl survey. In keeping with tradition, a straw broom is hoisted up the masthead, signifying a clean sweep.
Nov 20: The Albatross IV is decommissioned in ceremonies at Woods Hole, Mass. authorized by the President and carried out by Rear Admiral Jonathan W. Bailey, director of the NOAA Corps, and of NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. Speakers include the acting NOAA Administrator William Brennan (a former survey technician on the Albatross IV). Also present, Herbert Graham Woods Hole Laboratory director when the Albatross first arrived—Dr. Graham is 102 years old.
Dec 5: The Albatross IV leaves Woods Hole for the last time, headed for the Atlantic Marine Center in Norfolk, Virginia, where she will stay until decisions are made about disposition.
NOAA Fisheries Service is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation’s living marine resources and their habitat through scientific research, management and enforcement. NOAA Fisheries Service provides effective stewardship of these resources for the benefit of the nation, supporting coastal communities that depend upon them, and helping to provide safe and healthy seafood to consumers and recreational opportunities for the American public.
NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources. Visit http://www.noaa.gov. |
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