[Platforms] Re : More on Roy's outstanding codes

[Roy Lowry]

Dear All,

I don't think we will ever get a call sign on FV Challenger.  Looking at the ROSCOPs she was chartered in 1987 and 2006, which isn't much help. My way of making the distinction was by title - FV Challenger as opposed to RRS Challenger (GPIU).

With Corystes, we are coming to a much deeper issue.  I spent weeks thinking through and discussing with colleagues whether the change of governance warranted the allocation of a new code.  My basic analysis ran along the lines of 'if DARD had renamed her then we would definitely need a new code: what difference does keeping the same name make?'.   The conclusion reached was that keeping the same name on a governance change was such a rare event that we should incorporate governance into the entity definition and assign new codes on the rare occasions when the name doesn't change thereby working in a more consistent manner.   I appreciate that this is a slippery slope that could lead to a profusion of new codes for essentially political changes - like when FRS out-sourced the operation of their vessels, which I would definitely not recommend.  However, the operational portfolios of DARD (environmental monitoring of a clearly defined region) and CEFAS (fisheries research only bounded by the geographic limits of UK fishing interests) were so different to me that I was swayed.  As Susanne says, other views welcome.

It is a similar issue with Shackleton.  The figures in brackets are a crude way of indicating the period of commission - I hope to clean this up as we restructure our metadata structures (it should be dynamically constructed from multiple fields).  From 1957 to 1970, Shackleton was operated by BAS as an Antarctic base supply ship, registered - as are the current BAS ships - under a Falklands flag collecting oceanographic data on an opportunist basis.  As part of the formation of NERC, which incorporated BAS, she was converted into an deep ocean research vessel mainly used by IOS Wormley and switched to a UK flag.  Her callsign didn't change because of the odd (to me at least) relationship between UK and Falklands flags (same thing applies to UK/Bahamas).  To me these two stages in Shackleton's career constitute significantly different entities that need different codes.  Note that the data  in ICES all relate to her period of service as a NERC research vessel.  We have ROSCOPs from both periods of operation.

It all comes down to entity definition, i.e. the question 'What is a ship?', or to be more precise 'What is a platform instance?'.

Cheers, Roy.

>>> "Susanne Reimert" <susanne at ices.dk> 12/12/2006 1:59 pm >>>
Dear Roy and all,

Sorry for the long delay in responding to your mail of 9. November. I
have been thinking  about these ships in between other work here, but at
last here are some of the answers.


740E FV Challenger (FV chartered by MAFF)
-----------------
Do you have the call sign for this? Or when she was built/in operation
etc. It would be nice if we can distinguish this from the older 74CH,
call sign GPIU, (1973-2000).
We can then agree to the code to become 740E, and this code is not used
by NODC as far as I can see from the July version. Is this correct
Mitch?


 
740J for Corystes after she was sold by MAFF to DARD (now known as
AFBI).
------------------
This suggestion I responded to in my email (BODC part 2) list, which I
sent out on 25. July. I wrote, that the RV Corystes was built in 1988,
has the ship code 74RY, the call sign: GHRU, was owned/operated by
CEFAS, but transferred to DARD (Now AFBI) on 31. January 2005. CEFAS
still charter this ship at times.
I still see no need to assign a new code in this case, as it is the same
ship, with the same call sign, the same country etc. If we are to assign
a new code in this case, we are introducing more problems as we are then
coding owners/institutes.
I would like to hear some comments from all of you, if you agree or not.


740K	RRS Shackleton (57-70)	Operated by BAS as a base supply vessel
--------------------
As I wrote in (BODC-part 2) we have ROSCOPs and some data at ICES from
1972-1983, all coded as 74SF. What is wrong in using this code? 
This code is on both the ICES & NODC lists. I never heard back from you
what the '(57-70)' meant. Years of service or data available?

I will need to check our data from the Scotia(s) and get back to you
later.

Best wishes,
Susanne



____________________________________________________________
Susanne Reimert
Data Manager
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)
H.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46
DK-1553 Copenhagen V
Denmark
E-mail: susanne at ices.dk 
Telephone (operator): + 45 33 38 67 00
Telephone (direct)  : + 45 33 38 67 16
Fax: + 45 33 93 42 15
www.ices.dk or www.ices.dk/ocean 


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