Marijuana Trace Torpedoes Top Research Vessel

The Atlantis II, the grand dame of the U.S. research fleet, was seized under the government’s “zero tolerance” drug crackdown after U.S. Customs Service inspectors found a trace of marijuana in a crew member’s shaving kit, Customs officials said Thursday.

The 210-foot vessel, worth about $80 million, had just returned to the United States after an extended research trip off the coast of South America. The Atlantis II was undergoing a routine Customs inspection in San Diego Wednesday when the marijuana residue and two pipes were found, according to Michael Fleming, a Customs spokesman in Los Angeles.

The ship was held Thursday in San Diego Bay but will be released as soon as its owner, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution of Woods Hole, Mass., delivers a letter to Customs officials outlining anti-drug precautions to be taken on future expeditions, Fleming said.

Because of Atlantis II’s premier position among research vessels, and because it is one of only 25 ships in the National Science Foundation’s academic fleet, researchers clamor sometimes years in advance for permission to use the ship. A seizure that delayed the ship beyond its scheduled May 30 departure would threaten scientific expeditions that have been years in planning.

However, Woods Hole spokeswoman Shelley M. Lauzon said she does not anticipate a delay.

“The Customs people have been very cooperative,” she said. “They’re working with us.”

The marijuana and two “pot pipes” were found in the stateroom of Richard F. Morris, the ship’s second engineer, who pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon to a federal misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance. Morris, 27, of Buzzards Bay, Mass., was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation and fined $100 by U.S. Magistrate Irma Gonzalez.

Under the zero tolerance program, federal agencies, including Customs and the Coast Guard, have begun seizing boats and automobiles when they are found to contain even minuscule amounts of illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia. The marijuana found in Morris’ shaving kit amounted to 25 hundredths of a gram, Fleming said, less than one hundredth of an ounce.

Fleming said it is routine for Customs inspectors to examine personal items belonging to crew members arriving from foreign countries. There were 25 crew members aboard the ship, which left Guatemala on May 11, Fleming said.

The Atlantis II is considered the top ship in the U.S. research fleet because it carries the Alvin, a deep-diving submersible. The Alvin was used in 1977 to discover life around hot water vents in the ocean floor off the Galapagos Islands. The organisms later were found to rely on sulfur instead of carbon for energy, thus establishing for the first time an entirely new basis for life.

Atlantis II is scheduled to go north along the Pacific Coast to conduct about four months of research on the ocean floor off Oregon and Washington, Lauzon said.