Dozens of staff working in a building of a longstanding federal fisheries science lab in Beaufort have been displaced after it was discovered the building’s foundation is structurally damaged.
On Oct. 16, 40 employees had to move out of Building 2 at the National Ocean Service Lab after engineers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of the Chief Administrative Officer verified the damage the day prior, a National Ocean Service spokesperson confirmed Friday.
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Spokesperson Maureen O’Leary said in an email responding to questions that the damage was found during a routine assessment by the NOAA Beaufort Lab facilities team.
“As a result, the building has been vacated to ensure the safety of personnel,” O’Leary said. “We are looking at temporary facilities for our scientists to continue their work.”
The lab on Pivers Island between Morehead City and Beaufort is operated by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, or NCCOS, under NOAA’s National Ocean Service.
Scientists in the NCCOS lab research harmful algal blooms, coastal resilience and restoration, habitat mapping, aquaculture siting and impacts and ecology of marshes and coral reefs.
The Beaufort Lab, as it is more often called, started out as a U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries field station in 1899 before moving to Pivers Island in 1902.
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Nearly 100 years later, it was made part of the NCCOS.
The lab also houses NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center and Southeast Regional Office, the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve.
