Research Scientist James Gibson and Drew Wendeborn get a last look Sunday morning at the Sally Ride as they head to shore after a week aboard the ship. Owned by the U.S. Navy, Research Vessel Sally Ride is operated by UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Science Foundation provides additional support for scientific equipment and instrumentation. Part of America’s Academic Research Fleet, Sally Ride is managed by Scripps as a shared-use research facility within the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), serving scientists and students from across the United States. The vessel anchored overnight Saturday near the mile buoy near the mouth of the Santa Cruz Harbor amid a multi-week scientific research and discovery cruise from its home port in San Diego to Newport, Oregon. According to UC Santa Cruz Professor Emeritus of Earth and Planetary Sciences Eli Silver, “The UC Santa Cruz connection is pretty deep here. UCSC Earth and Marine Sciences Research Scientist Dan Orange is chief scientist, I’m a senior scientist and James Gibson, who received his undergraduate degree from UCSC Earth and Planetary Sciences in 2012, is also a senior scientist. Another scientific party member is Harold Tobin, PhD from UCSC, is joining the cruise remotely and supervising graduate student Maddy Lucas, who is on the ship and collecting some critical data for her thesis.” Dan Orange is known to many locals as “Dangerous Dan” on UCSC radio station KZSC-fm and has been co-hosting “The Bushwhacker’s Breakfast Club” on Friday mornings since 1989. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
