March 30, 2022 โ The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationโs (NOAA) ship Rainier has finally departed on the farthest journey of its 52-year history.
Originally planned for 2020, the ship is on a 3,307-nautical mile expedition to the Western Pacific to map the waters and survey the reefs. The ship set sail from Honolulu, Hawaii, on March 26.
This is Rainierโs first multidisciplinary expedition to Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. A team of scientists on board will map the waters from shore to almost 2,000 meters deep. The data collected from this trip will support safe navigation as well as coral habitat and fisheries conservation; it will also support storm surge and tsunami modeling.