Marine Ecosystems Research Department - jamstec japan agency ...

Japan Marine Science and Technology Center
Outline of Activities
, that was two years after creating the Mutsu
Institute for Oceanography.
The Institute functions as the home port for the
"MIRAI", and operates such facilities as an administration
building, observation equipment and machinery
maintenance shop, sample analysis facility, and a
facility for promoting research exchanges. The
Institute is also responsible for maintenance and repair
of observation systems on TRITON buoys, collection
and management of observation data, various kinds of
tests on ARGO floats before deployment under the
ARGO Plan, and pretreatment of seawater for determining
age by radioactive carbon ( C). The Institute
has also installed an array of analytical instruments
including the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer,
stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer, and
electron microscopes to strengthen its function as a
base for marine science research.
With these facilities and equipments, the Institute is
undertaking research that will position it as the hub of
earth science research centering on the northern seas
such as the Northwestern Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean
and the Sea of Okhotsk.
(b) Public Relation Activity
The understanding and cooperation of the people
living in Mutsu City, the home port of the "MIRAI", is
indispensable for the smooth operations of the
"MIRAI", and through broad-ranging public relations
activities, Mutsu Institute for Oceanography is endeavoring
to bring the achievements and dreams of marine
science and technology to the general public, and especially
to the younger generation who represent the
future of ocean research.
In fiscal year , as in fiscal year , Mutsu
Institute for Oceanography opened its facilities at the
Sekinehama Port in Mutsu City to the general public
on Marine Day on July as a special event for
Science and Technology Week. A total of people
visited the Institute. The Institute also hosted four high
school students under the high school student internship,
and provided a valuable educational experience
for them through practical training on maintenance of
the ocean observation buoy system (Fig. ). Under an
activity entitled From the Northern Seas 2002, students
from primary, middle and high schools around
Mutsu City exchanged emails with researchers on the
"MIRAI" engaged in the time-series observational
study in the North Pacific, and on their return to port,
the researchers (from Japan, France, Germany and
USA) visited the schools to talk about the research
mission, and international cooperation and understanding
(Fig. ). The Institute also held a special seminar
given by scientific adviser Noriyuki Nasu entitled
Looking at the ocean from the Tsugaru Strait. The
seminar was attended by about people both from
the Institute and from outside. Researchers were also
Fig. 1 Internship for high school students
Fig. 2 School visit by researchers
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