Huntsman Marine Science Centre
Encyclopedia
The Huntsman Marine Science Centre (acronym: HMSC; previously Huntsman Marine Laboratory) is located on Lower Campus Road in St. Andrews, New Brunswick
St. Andrews, New Brunswick
St. Andrews is a Canadian town in Charlotte County, New Brunswick.It is sometimes referred to in tourism marketing by its unofficial nickname "St. Andrews-by-the-sea".-Geography:St...

, Canada. The centre is a membership-driven, nonprofit organization
Nonprofit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 founded by a consortium of universities with the support of support from the National Research Council of Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, frequently referred to as DFO , is the department within the government of Canada that is responsible for developing and implementing policies and programs in support of Canada's economic, ecological and scientific interests in oceans and inland waters...

, and the New Brunswick Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture (New Brunswick)
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture was a part of the Government of New Brunswick. It was charged with the development and support of food production and economic development through such sectors of the economy....

. W.D. Robertson is the Executive Director; Dr. W.B. Scott is senior scientist emeritus. It is named in honor of Archibald Gowanlock Huntsman
Archibald Gowanlock Huntsman
Archibald Gowanlock Huntsman was a Canadian academic, oceanographer, and fisheries biologist. He is best known for his research on Atlantic salmon and inventing the fast freezing of fish fillets in 1929....

, director of the St. Andrews Biological Station
St. Andrews Biological Station
St. Andrews Biological Station is located on Brandy Cove Road in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. Along with the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, the Atlantic Salmon Federation, and New Brunswick Community College/St. Andrew's, SABS is a part of a network of fisheries research and educational...

 that adjoins the centre, who stimulated fishery research in the region.

History

It was founded in 1969 by a consortium of universities in Eastern Canada, and several government departments, who pooled their resources in order to provide field research and teaching facilities that would complement their programs in marine biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...

 and oceanography
Oceanography
Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...

. The Huntsman Marine Laboratory was established on 20 acres (8.1 ha) of land that was provided by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and included two residential buildings that were called the Ambridge Estate. The government assisted with the purchase of the Sir Thomas Tait Estate which included another 50 acres, and the large Anderson House, which provides accommodation for visiting students. A public aquarium
Aquarium
An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...

 opened in 1972. The name was changed to Huntsman Marine Science Centre in 1987. In 1991 and again in 1999, the HMSC was awarded the Gulf of Maine
Gulf of Maine
The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America.It is delineated by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and Cape Sable at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northeast. It includes the entire coastlines of the U.S...

 Visionary Award. Most recently, the centre has hosted international celebrities Sam Anderson, Matt Grenander, and Chris Ko from Bell High School.

Geography

The HMSC laboratories are located on 74 acres (29.9 ha) of land at the estuary
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

 of the St. Croix River
St. Croix River (Maine-New Brunswick)
The St. Croix River is a river in northeastern North America, in length, that forms part of the Canada – United States border between Maine and New Brunswick . The river rises in the Chiputneticook Lakes and flows south and southeast, between Calais and St. Stephen...

 at the Bay of Fundy
Bay of Fundy
The Bay of Fundy is a bay on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine...

.

Services and facilities

HMSC has teaching and aquaculture
Aquaculture
Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...

 research laboratories and a 15 metres (49.2 ft) research vessel
Research vessel
A research vessel is a ship designed and equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel, others require a dedicated vessel...

. The HMSC hosts the executive office of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
The Ocean Biogeographic Information System is a web-based access point to information about the distribution and abundance of living species in the ocean.-History:...

. HMSC's education branch offers academic and public education programs for schoolchildren, undergraduate students and school teachers. The research branch works with governmental agencies and private industry, while its biodiversity unit, the Atlantic Reference Centre, has the largest collections of Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 organisms in Canada. The HMSC hosts the executive office of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
The Ocean Biogeographic Information System is a web-based access point to information about the distribution and abundance of living species in the ocean.-History:...

. The Huntsman Aquarium and Museum includes a teeming touch tank. Live marine specimens, displays, and marine ecology films are available from May to October.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK