Fleet
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| INTRODUCTION In February 1996, a Tripartite Agreement was signed between NERC (Natural Environment Research Council), IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer) and BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) for the mutual cooperation of marine scientific interests and activities.
Under the aegis of this agreement a Marine Facilities Tripartite Group (MFTG) was established which comprises the managers and planners of the respective fleets of scientific research ships and major marine facilities. This group has been meeting annually since 1996 with the primary objective of bartering shiptime and exchanging major marine equipment without the need to charter or exchange money.
From each organisation’s perspective, this arrangement has two significant advantages. Firstly, it allows scientists access to a wider range of facilities and equipment than would otherwise be possible. This includes 14 research ships and other facilities such as manned submersibles, towed arrays and shipboard surveying systems. Such facilities are required to carry out "cutting edge" research, but are frequently so expensive that it makes little sense for all three countries to purchase their own.
Secondly, it reduces wasted time, and therefore wasted cost, spent on long passage legs between areas of scientific interest, and allows scientists access to a wider range of geographical areas in a given year. In these ways the tripartite agreement promotes more efficient and cost effective use of each country’s national resources.
To facilitate the arrangement, each country has now synchronised its annual planning cycle. In the summer each year the Working Group meets to consider and agree bartering possibilities.
Although the underlying principal is that no money changes hands, the arrangement does not provide "free" ship time. For every cruise on a foreign ship, the beneficiary country must mount a full cruise on one of its own ships in return, and to an equivalent value. The operating costs still fall to the ship owners, and each country has an appropriate scheme of banking to support the process. An equivalence points system has been agreed for the value of each of the ships, to ensure like-for-like value. Points are allocated per ship day used.
Access to these facilities is now automatically incorporated into the planning cycle. For more information on how the agreement works or how to arrange a specific barter, interested marine researchers should contact the representatives in their own country, who will act in behalf of the community to negotiate barters as required. A contact list is included here.
It is anticipated that this tripartite agreement on co-operative programming and exchange of facilities may be the beginning of a coordinated research fleet of European partners, underpinned by nationally owned and managed resources. Charles W Fay
Gerhard Kortum
Jean-Xavier Castrec 16 September 1999 Barter Exchange Valuation of European Tripartite Research Ships and Major Marine Equipment
*Currently available for joint cruises but not for exchange of shiptime.
Website Addresses for Ship Details
RVS Website: www.soc.soton.ac.uk/RVS/ IFREMER Website: www.ifremer.fr/anglais/flotte/navires/ RF Website: www.rf-bremen.com/schiffe.htm POLARSTERN Website: www.awi-bremerhaven.de/Polarstern/
Situation des navires du NERC en 2002 RRS DISCOVERY North Atlantic, between South West Approaches of UK, North West Approaches of UK, Iceland, Faeroes and Canary Islands RRS CHARLES DARWIN Indian Ocean including Arabian Sea and South Indian Ocean,. RRS CHALLENGER Navire désarmé.
Situation des navires Allemands en 2002 POLARSTERN Antarctic und Artic (June-Aug.). SONNE Pacific Ocean. METEOR Black Sea, East Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Tropical Atlantic Ocean. POSEIDON North-East Atlantic (Canaries to Iceland, Norvegian Sea). ALKOR Baltic Sea, Skagerrak, North Sea. HEINCKE North Sea, British Isles, Ireland, Baltic Sea. HUMBOLDT Baltic Sea.
P.S. Le Polarstern et le Meteor peuvent faire l’objet de campagnes conjointes mais pas d’échange dans le cadre de l’accord tripartite
Contacts for Shiptime Barters Under the Tripartite Agreement IFREMER M Jean-Xavier Castrec Chef du Service Programme des Moyens et Operations Navals Tel: +33 (0)2 98 22 44 53
NERC Andy R. Louch NERC Research Ship Unit Tel. +44(0)é23 8059 6800
BMBF Dr Ekkard Warmuth Leiter des Referats Meeres- und Polarforschung; Tel: +49 (0)228 57 36 69
Prof Dr Gerhard Kortum Institut fur Meereskunde an der Universitat Kiel Tel: +49 (0)431 597 39 02
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