HELP is needed!!

[Lucas339]

well some of you know what i do. I am a marine biologist and i currently work for Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce. for those who don't know about Harbor Branch, this institution was at the top of deep sea expolration for many years and had lead to many discoveries (see website below for the list). some of the Panet Earth Deep Sea video was shot in the Johnson Sea Link, our deep water sub. one thing this sub has done that hits many people in FL's heart (we are the NASA state!) is that the subs were used to recover the remains of the Challenger.

the most important part of our fleet here is our ship, R/V Seward Johnson. This is a large research vessel that has a special arm, built here at Harbor Branch, that launches the sub. due to the unique capability of this sub, it is rather large and heavy. It can only be launched off of the Seward Johnson due to its size. without the ship, the subs cannot be used which would be a damaging blow to our science here.

the ship is currently in danager of being sold. there is a petition online (see link below) to show those in charge that there is public intrest in keeping this operation going.

I personally have never been on the sub. currently, there is a possiblity that we may engage in some more deep sea research in the upcoming years. i plan on starting my etremely over due masters degree in the fall and would love to work with deep sea inverebrates, geared mostly toward echinoderms....my soft spot!

i ask all of you to please sign the petition. i know it has nothing to do with herps but it has much to do with understanding more of this ball of water that we live on.

thank you

Lucas

website for the ship and sub: http://www.saveoursubs.com/index.html

petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/sav...d-submersibles

[Muze]

Signed.

[llovelace]

Signed . Can you believe they don't have delivery service for chinese take-out here!

[TheOtherLeadingBrand]

I will sign it- another Florida native here. I was just going through my old boxes and I found my saved newspaper from the day of the Challenger tragedy. I will always save that.