Friday, October 12, 2001

WILMINGTON, N.C. -– The University of North Carolina at Wilmington has been awarded a $925,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to continue its Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program (CORMP).

“We are grateful for the strong support of senators Jesse Helms and John Edwards, representative Mike McIntyre and their staffs,” said Robert Wicklund, director of federal programs at UNCW.

The CORMP program, now moving into its third year, is a comprehensive coastal ocean research and monitoring program taking an in-depth look at the biological, chemical, geological and physical/meteorological dynamics of North Carolina’s coastal ocean. The program mission is to provide an interdisciplinary science-based framework that supports wise coastal use. Broad initiatives within the program include fisheries oceanography, coastal ocean water quality, coastal ocean productivity, sediment transport and shoreline stability, ocean circulation and weather, and the general health of the coastal ecosystem.

“We have begun a far-reaching program to assure that future decisions regarding the health of our fragile coasts is based on comprehensive information and understanding,” said Dr. Marvin K. Moss, professor of physics and physical oceanography who is directing and administering the grant. “UNCW has jumped into the forefront of an issue that is national in scope and of concern to people around the country and the world.”

The program was initiated by UNCW in late 1999 to address the rapid growth and development of the Southeastern region and its effects on the coastal system as well as the long-term problems associated with frequent hurricanes and other storm systems, beach erosion, polluted run-off from cities and farms and loss of living resources. It is intended to provide decision-makers with the tools to help establish a sustainable healthy coast in the Southeast.

The program will have 17 permanent moorings in the coastal waters of North Carolina’s Onslow and Long bays, with 20 or more fixed sites where monthly transects collect additional interdisciplinary data.

In addition to Moss, there are 11 co-investigators for the CORMP grant, including:

From UNCW – Fred Bingham, associate professor of physics and physical oceanography; Larry Cahoon and Martin Posey, professors of biological sciences; Bill Cooper, professor of chemistry; Mike Durako, associate professor of biological sciences; Tom Lankford, assistant professor of biological sciences; Lynn Leonard, associate professor of earth sciences; and Mike Mallin, research associate professor with the Center for Marine Science.

From NC State University -– Len Pietrafesa, professor of physics and math sciences; and Lian Xie, assistant professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences.

From University of Rhode Island – Art Spivack, former UNCW professor of earth sciences.

Other faculty assisting with the program include Nancy Grindlay, associate professor of earth sciences; Steve Skrabal, associate professor of chemistry; Stephen Kinsey and Amy Wilbur, assistant professors of biological sciences; Robert Kieber, professor of chemistry; and Troy Alphin, research associate with the Center for Marine Sciences.

Support staff include Andy Shepard, associate director of NOAA’s National Undersea Research Center at UNCW; Dennis Ihnat, assistant to the director of special programs at CMS; Jay Souza, research technician at CMS; Chris Angelow and Sharon Kissling, director of CORMP operations.

Dr. Moss can be reached at 910.962.2379.