NOAA and Partners Visit Wreck
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Undersea Research Center at the University of Connecticut (NURC-UConn) returned on 13th September 2003 to the wreck of the famed 19th-century steamship Portland, kicking off a week-long expedition to peer into the vessel's past and plan its future. The NOAA-UConn team is conducting the first surveys of the Portland since confirmation of its location in August 2002. It lies within the NOAA Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS), off the coast of Massachusetts. Using the latest ocean exploration technology, researchers from NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP) and NURC-UConn, with support from the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, are carefully surveying the Portland and its immediate surroundings, with the Science Channel joining the expedition to provide high-definition video photography of the wreck. They will also produce an hour long documentary about the vessel and surveys of the wreck site.
