Thursday, September 23, 2004

MEMORANDUM

TO: Media

FROM: Mimi Cunningham

DATE: Sept. 23, 2004

With coastal populations booming and an anticipated increase in hurricanes, knowledge of ocean processes is more critical than ever before. Since mid-2000, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington has operated the Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program (CORMP) in collaboration with N.C. State University and the University of South Carolina with funding provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

UNCW was recently notified that the program has been awarded $2.5 million from NOAA, among the largest research awards ever received by UNCW. This funding will upgrade, enhance and expand on-shore and off-shore oceanographic and marine meteorological instruments that will ultimately extend from South Carolina to north of Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Included in the award will be a cooperative program with Camp Lejeune with both CORMP and Camp Lejeune contributing over $150,000 to place such instruments off Camp Lejeune. This partnership will significantly benefit the Marine Base and its training exercises.

The significance of this project is that the South Carolina and Southeastern North Carolina coasts will have the most sophisticated and thorough oceanographic information available in the United States that can be used to predict storms, rip currents, and provide storm surge modeling as well as provide other valuable data. Much of this data will be available in real-time via the Internet.

Please join us at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 27 in the auditorium of the UNCW Center for Marine Science for a briefing and update about the CORMP program by Drs. Marvin K. Moss, Lynn Leonard and Michael Durako of CORMP. The Center for Marine Science is located off Masonboro Loop Road. Please see directions below or access map at http://www.uncw.edu/cmsr/maps/index.html. We anticipate that representatives from the National Weather Service, N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries and Camp Lejeune will also be present.

Directions to UNCW-Center for Marine Science

Travel 132 South (College Road) to the traffic light at Mohican Trail. Make LEFT onto Mohican, continuing straight until it ends at Masonboro Loop Road. Turn RIGHT onto Masonboro Loop Road. Marvin K. Moss Lane is about ½ mile on the LEFT. Our facility is at the end by the Intracoastal Waterway.