A PRACTICAL, TRAILERABLE LIMNOLOGICAL RESEARCH VESSEL FOR THE FINGER LAKES INSTITUTE

On many lakes, oceanographic and limnologic research is restricted if the lakes are inaccessible by a suitable research vessel. The Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart and William Smith Colleges resolved this problem by converting a stock pontoon boat into a capable research platform which can be easily towed overland, and launched from a typical boat ramp. This new vessel, the JB Snow, is the perfect compliment to our existing 65-foot research vessel the William Scandling. Here we present how a stripped down Crest Sport 25, a 25-foot pontoon boat with oversized pontoons (26” diameter instead of 24”) and a 115 hp 4-cycle outboard engine, was set up for limnological research that includes most of the scientific capabilities of the William Scandling but with considerably smaller draft and contained in a trailerable package. For example, this vessel will have the ability to collect routine limnological data (such as plankton tows, Secchi disc depths, nutrient and biomass assays, water geochemistry, etc), as well as collecting detailed bathymetric data, CTD casts, sediment samples, and deploy and/or tow geophysical and other remote sensing equipment. Specific modifications include a winch, generator, “A-frame” boom, and large hole through the deck for deployment and recovery of equipment between the pontoons. Beyond the standard limnological tools, equipment accessible to the vessel will include a marine radio, Lowrance 104C GPS (WAAS interfaced) and depth sounder (50 & 200 kHz transducers), SeaBird CTDs, EdgeTech AS-600 side scan sonar, EdgeTech X-Star high-resolution seismic reflection profiler (1-12 kHz), Aanderaa current meters, Hugrun Seamon temperature sensors, ponar dredges, box corer, Benthos gravity corer, and ETH’s 10-m piston corer. In summary, this vessel facilitates research on small, non-interconnected bodies of water and expands our limnological, hydrogeochemical and paleoclimatic investigations of Seneca Lake to the 10 Finger Lakes and other neighboring lakes of Central New York State which are not interconnected by a navigable waterway. Like the William Scandling, the JB Snow is available to the research community.