University of New Hampshire Pier Facility

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  • Apr 6, 2010

In 2001, the University of New Hampshire received a grant to modify the pier at a 5-acre, former U.S. Coast Guard parcel of land located on Fort Point in New Castle, New Hampshire. The pier facility supports the activities of the UNH Marine Program, the Cooperative Institute for New England Mariculture and Fisheries (CINEMar), the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET), the UNH Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM), the Joint Hydrographic Center (JHC), the Coastal Ocean Observation and Analysis (COOA) program, and the UNH Sea Grant Program. The pier is home port for the new NOAA ocean mapping "SWATH" vessel, a twin-hull vessel that holds 16 researchers. A floating dock system provides berthing for smaller research vessels. The pier has been appropriately equipped to support the berthed vessels as well as the research, education and service missions of the University.

Fish pens under the pier are used for both cod and steel head trout prior to transfer out to the open ocean pens near the Isles of Shoals. The new pier also accommodates under-pier mussel seed collection rafts, critical to the University’s Open Ocean Aquaculture Program.

The project makes extensive use of epoxy-coated reinforcing steel to protect it against corrosion due to the salt water.