LIPI will get more ships to boost research activities
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) will get two more ocean research ships in late 1997, according to an agreement it signed with a Norwegian shipyard company over the weekend.
The contract to build the ships, costing about Rp 65 billion (US$28 million), was signed by Indra Aswandi, from LIPI's Oceanography Research and Development Center, and Paal Marten, the Director of the Norwegian company, Mjellem & Karlsen.
Also at the ceremony were LIPI's chairman Soefjan Tsauri and Norwegian Ambassador H.E. Jan Wessel Hegg.
"The new sea research vessels are expected to replace our outdated research vessels," Soefjan said.
The new 800-ton ocean research ships, named Baruna 7 and 8, will aid research in meteorology, marine biology, geology and geophysics.
The LIPI oceanography department already has two ships for ocean research, the 200-ton KM Samudra, which was built in the Netherlands 54 years ago, and the 100-ton KM Soeriaatmadja.
Indonesia has four other research ships, namely Baruna 1,2,3 and 4; all are held by the Agency for Technology Assessment and Application (BPPT). It is hard for LIPI to use these ships because they are also used by other institutions.
According to Malikusworo Hutomo, head of the LIPI Oceanography Information Department, a joint research project would be undertaken by Indonesian and Norwegian scholars during the two- month sailing period following the hand over of Baruna 7 and 8.
On their way from Bergen, Norway, to Indonesia, the research team will study the eastern waters of Indonesia.
The new ships will sail across the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the west coast of Sumatra, the south coast of Java, the Lombok Straits and the Java Sea.
Dubbed TROPICS (Tropical River Ocean Processes in Coastal Settings), the research team will study rivers' impacts on marine ecosystems. It will also observe oceanography, geology, meteorology, global tides and their impact on tropical areas. (14)