The R/V/ Neecho on its trailer in Ushuaia.


The R/V Neecho has to undergo some refurbishing before it could be used on the project. (photos courtesy of Steffen Saustrup and Jamie Austin).



After surviving an arduous journey from Lago Titicaca, high in the northern Andes of Bolivia and Peru, the R/V Neecho arrived on Lago Fagnano in middle February 2005. The Neecho was originally commissioned by the United States Geological Survey and outfitted at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), but the vessel was transferred to Duke University via WHOI in 1996. It was used for piston coring and remote sensing on Lago Titicaca between 1997 and 2004. The R/V Neecho is a capable 39-foot, twin-diesel boat that can cruise at 5-7 knots, and has 7 kw/10 kw generators and an air compressor with capacity suitable for small airgun operation at 1-2 second repetition rates for seismic reflection. She is also equipped with a modified Kullenberg corer, which was used to recover 10 m (and occasionally longer) cores from the bottom of Titicaca, and will be used to collect long cores for paleoclimate study from Lago Fagnano.



The USGS provides a partial list of the research projects that the R/V Neecho has been used for.