HOUGHTON – A National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) vessel is in town this week as part of two-and-a-half weeks of assisting Michigan Technological University research projects.

A Tech researcher doing microbial sample work joined the 55-foot R5501 on its trip from Muskegon last Monday and took a sample 13,000 feet down in Lake Superior near Sault Ste. Marie. It arrived in town Saturday, said Jamey Anderson, coordinator of marine operations at Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center.

Projects range from water quality sampling to sediment sampling for bottom-dwelling organisms.

The ship began helping Tech support some of its moorings and coastal buoys in the South Entry in Monday. It has a crane capable of lifting 4,000 pounds, though for safety reasons they stay within about 40 percent of that, said Capt. Daniel Burlingame. On Tuesday, they replaced a block for a buoy that a tug-barge struck and dragged almost a mile two weeks ago.

The R5501 brings a lifting capability the ships at the GLRC don’t have, Anderson said.

“We actually brought the whole buoy on the boat, and brought its whole 1,600-pound mooring block onto the boat, replacing the mooring, did some work on the buoy, put it back over the side,” he said.

A captain and a deckhand, at minimum, must staff the ship. MTU researchers also served as crew members Tuesday.

“They’ve been on this boat, so they’re very experienced, and they know all the systems on the boat,” Burlingame said.

Average workdays on the ship are about 10 hours. The trip to Houghton is a plum assignment for NOAA staff, Burlingame said.

“Our field station is down in Muskegon – it’s mostly just glacial till sand, there’s not much elevation,” he said. “Coming up here is beautiful. You’ve got elevation, you’ve got rocks, the water’s super-clear, the staff here is just fantastic, and the projects are always fun.”

The ship travels through four or the five Great Lakes, with the exception of Ontario, and averages about five to six ports on each.

It leaves Tuesday to go to Alpena. Leaving with it will be a NOAA crew, along with members of the MTU Research Institute in Ann Arbor and one of Bernard’s graduate students, who will do acoustic sampling.

This is the fourth year Tech has worked with NOAA. Anderson said the projects are ones that can provide useful knowledge to both.

“We think it’s working out pretty well for both parties,” he said.