The F/V Ocean Explorer is a typical Alaskan trawler that fishes in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries. Large trawl nets are dragged on the bottom to catch bottom-dwelling species such as Pacific cod and midwater trawls are towed in the water column to catch pelagic species such as walleye pollock. The vessel is 155 ft long and 36 ft wide. She can carry 110,000 gallons of fuel and 14,000 gallons of freshwater. During the 31 day charter, over 28,000 gallons of fuel and virtually all of the fresh water were consumed. She was extensively modified to accomodate additional scientific equipment, including two side scan sonar systems and their winches. Image courtesy of Next Generation Tools 2001, NOAA-OER.
