Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies (CIMRS)
CIMRS was established in 1982 to foster collaborative research between Oregon State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in fisheries ecosystem studies, aquaculture, oceanography, and marine-resource technology and related fields. The present day CIMRS partnership brings university scientists together with scientists from NOAA's NW Fisheries Science Center, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory to work on problems of mutual interest relating to the living and non-living components of the marine environment and their interrelationships.
CIMRS research staff are currently involved in scientific efforts that parallel NOAA's program objectives in the areas of
- fisheries oceanography: including characterizations of essential fish habitat, marine protected areas, groundfish stock assessment, long-term surveys and process studies of mesozooplankton and selected species of euphausiids, juvenile salmonids and associated taxa off the Oregon/N. California coast, and studies of juvenile salmon and the influence of disease and anthropogenic factors in the estuarine environment
- ocean acoustics: using seafloor hydrophone arrays to monitor earthquakes associated with seafloor spreading centers and the vocalizations of marine mammals.
- geological/chemical oceanography: specifically, assessing the effects of spreading-center hydrothermal venting on the marine physical, chemical, and biological environment, and defining the tectonic and volcanological processes producing oceanic crust at slow - and fast-spreading ridge systems.
- ocean exploration: development of instrumented seafloor observatories, and geological and biological surveys of the Kermadec Arc, northeast of New Zealand, the Drake Passage, and the Antarctic Peninsula.
CIMRS encourages and assists the education and training of scientists in disciplines related to marine resources by bringing faculty and students from many university Colleges and Research units together with federal and state research scientists, and by sponsoring student internships, assistantships and workshops. The Institute is governed by an Executive Board and meets regularly with members of a Scientific Advisory Council. CIMRS Research Staff are based primarily at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.
