Newport hopes NOAA port is just the start


Newport officials have welcomed NOAA’s Marine Operations Center-Pacific with open arms and eager anticipation, dreaming of the day when the move might transform a relatively sleepy stretch of the Oregon Coast into a research mecca. But how that happens exactly, requires a good understanding of what the homeport is and what it does.

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Newport officials have welcomed NOAA’s Marine Operations Center-Pacific with open arms and eager anticipation, dreaming of the day when the move might transform a relatively sleepy stretch of the Oregon Coast into a research mecca. But how that happens exactly, requires a good understanding of what the homeport is and what it does.

Think of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “homeport” as a high-end service station.

On the gleaming new docks surrounding its 1,300-foot-long pier, there are hookups for water, sewer and electric, all to service the four research and survey ships that now call Newport home. When the newest member of the fleet, the 208-foot-long Bell M. Shimada, cruised into port on Labor Day, crews plugged into those utilities and offloaded trash and recycling into two giant bins stationed there, as they will be for the next several months while the ship undergoes necessary repairs and crew members either brush up on training or take vacations.

Read more in today’s Register-Guard.