JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two years after finding a new home through a partnership with Jacksonville University, the shark trackers of Ocearch will have new digs again -- at an unbeatable price.
The internationally acclaimed shark tracking program will continue its connection with JU's Marine Science Research Institute.
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But the Ocearch team will be relocating its staff to Mayport after the City Council approved a 10-year lease agreement at charge of $1 per year.
The lease agreement between the city, JU and Ocearch allows operators from the research team and the university to use building in Mayport for general administrative and office use, educational outreach and development programs.
The research vessel will be moored at docks in Mayport that are currently being constructed for commercial, recreational vessels and the Ocearch.
The 126-foot vessel carries a research platform like a sea laboratory. For about 10 years before the agreement with JU, it traveled the world and generated scientific data from marine species.
When it made the partnership with JU in 2017, the vessel M/V OCEARCH had tagged more than 200 sharks and completed dozens of special research expeditions from South Africa to the Galapagos Islands to Australia over the previous decade.