Shannon Point Marine Center receives grant, remains mostly closed

The Shannon Point Marine Center has been awarded a grant in the amount of $182,413 from the National Science Foundation to upgrade its culturing facility for small marine organisms.

The money will be used to invest in new equipment for the lab, including a laminar flow hood, autoclave, incubators and others, but the question about when students and staff will be able to get into the lab to use them remains unanswered.

Shannon Point Marine Center is a research facility on Fidalgo Island run through Western Washington University. Students and independent researchers will use the new equipment to study how small organisms react to environmental challenges, like ocean acidification.

Suzanne Strom, senior marine scientist at the center, said the grant will provide much-needed updates to the culture lab, which has been using 20- to 30-year-old equipment.