New NOAA vessel ordered

V-T Halter Marine will build a new $15 million coastal mapping ship for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The company expects to deliver the 124-foot, twin-hull ship in the summer of 2008.

The ship will have side scan and multi-beam sonar to survey the coastal sea floor. The data will update nautical charts in waterways of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, Caribbean Sea and Great Lakes.