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It’s a buoy for OOI and new WHOI laboratory

The first buoy designed for the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is loaded onto the RV Connecticut for testing ops south of Nantucket earlier this year. The OOI program is one of the projects that will be housed in the Laboratory for Ocean Sensors and Observing Systems (LOSOS), which will be celebrated today with a groundbreaking on the WHOI Quissett Campus. The building–scheduled to be ready for occupancy in June 2012–is funded with $8.1 million as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants to support the construction of new scientific research facilities. Helping to celebrate today’s WHOI groundbreaking will be Pat Gallagher, Director, of the National Institute for Standards and Technology, Larry Robinson, Asst. Secretary of Commerce for Conservation and Management at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt, U.S. Congress (D-MA).

(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)