NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker is the fifth in a series of the most technologically advanced fisheries vessels in the world. The Lasker will primarily support fish, marine mammals and turtle surveys off the U.S. west coast and in the eastem tropical Pacific Ocean. The Lasker arrived to its west coast home port San Diego in April 2014. Funding is provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

 

Reuben Lasker is equipped with oceanographic sampling and measurement systems, instrumented trawls, longlines, and plankton nets for direct sampling.  The ship has a dynamic positioning system to steer along a pre-determined trackline and to accurately hold the ship in a fixed position. The ship is also equipped with meteorological data collection systems and has extensive wet and dry labs to provide maximum utilization of every hour at sea. These technologies will dramatically improve the ability to conduct diverse data collection operations as required by its mission.

 

The new vessel is named after the late Dr. Reuben Lasker, who served as the Director of SWFSC's Coastal Fisheries Division and as adjunct professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, V.C. San Diego. Dr. Lasker built a renown research group that focused on the recruitment of young fish to the adult population - a topic with implications for fisheries management throughout the world.