Facilities
At Humboldt, students go beyond the books and gain real-world experience using on-and off-campus facilities for lab work and research.
Telonicher Marine Laboratory
Humboldt's Telonicher Marine Laboratory is located in Trinidad, 14 miles north of the University's main campus. Several of the core oceanography courses are taught at the Marine Lab. The facilities are often used for student and faculty research projects.
The marine laboratory is well equipped for marine education and research. The excellent facilities include a constantly recharged seawater system with chiller, a wet laboratory for rearing marine invertebrates and fishes, a culture room for larval invertebrates and algae, a walk-in freezer, a walk-in cold room, a large shop for design and fabrication of experimental equipment, and a microscope room.
In addition to standard biological and oceanographic laboratory equipment used for teaching and research, specialized equipment includes a chemical autoanalyzer, UV-Vis double beam spectrophotometer, gas chromatograph, liquid scintillation counter, laser particle analyzer, high speed refrigerated centrifuge, incubators, Ro-Tap sieve shaker, electro-balance, cabinet x-radiography, and various research grade microscopes with photographic and video capability.
Students learn to use many of these devices, which gives them enviable experience and skills.
Telonicher Marine Laboratory website »
Research Vessel Coral Sea
Humboldt owns and operates a 90-foot research vessel, the R/V Coral Sea. This vessel has offshore cruising capability and is equipped with an A-frame, two winches suitable for trawling and standard hydrocasts, a knuckleboom crane, and scientific dry and wet labs. It is especially effective as an outdoor classroom for students. Personnel capacity on the R/V Coral Sea is 25 scientists (plus 5 crew members). The vessel has sleeping quarters with 12 bunks and a galley. The unobstructed view from the upper deck makes it an ideal platform for observing marine mammals and birds. Laboratories inside the vessel offer space for studying marine organisms and for collecting and analyzing scientific data.
In most core Oceanography classes, we go on at least one research cruise on the R/V Coral Sea. At sea, students learn to use trawls, plankton nets, box-corers, sediment grab samplers, CTD/Rosette samplers, side-scanning sonar, and other oceanographic sampling equipment. By the time they graduate, our students can expect to log around 100 hours at sea.
Now that's a real oceanography experience!
Research Vessel Coral Sea website »