FAU HARBOR BRANCH AT 50
ANNIVERSARY
21
FAU HARBOR BRANCH TIMELINE
1971 – J. Seward Johnson Sr., with the help of longtime friend
Edwin A. Link, establish Harbor Branch north of Fort Pierce.
1971 – The original Johnson-Sea-Link submersible is designed
with a nearly 360-degree visibility from its acrylic sphere.
Operating for more than 40 years, JSL submersibles performed
more than 9,000 dives by more than 3,000 scientists.
1973 – First major research project, Indian River Coastal
Zone Study, begins with researchers from Harbor Branch,
Smithsonian Institute, the Link Foundation and Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution.
1984 – 92 square miles of the Oculina Bank are designated as
the first marine area protecting deep-water reefs in the world.
1986 – FAU Harbor Branch ships and JSL subs assist NASA
and the Navy in locating and identifying wreckage of the
Space Shuttle Challenger.
1991 – Harbor Branch begins aquaculture training program,
teaching former commercial fishermen displaced by Florida’s
netfishing ban how to grow clams, sparking a new industry.
1999 – A month-long Harbor Branch expedition of the
waters around Cuba is portrayed in the Discovery Channel’s
Cuba: Forbidden Depths TV documentary.
The historic Link Port Channel off the Indian River Lagoon as Ed Link
would have seen it in the late 1960s. The land was used as a sand quarry
that for a short time shipped raw building materials to the Bahamas.
2002 – FAU Harbor Branch scientists are the first to
successfully repopulate a damaged coral reef with sea fans
raised in captivity.
2007 – Marine and Oceanographic Academy launches at
FAU Harbor Branch in partnership with Fort Pierce Westwood
High School and the St. Lucie County School District.
2010 – FAU Harbor Branch assesses the impact of the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
2013 – Establishment of the Indian River Lagoon
Observatory Network, an array of environmental sensors
that measure real-time weather and water quality data in the
Indian River Lagoon.
2014 – FAU Harbor Branch builds world’s first ocean energy
turbines for offshore testing.
2015 – Researchers establish a land-based seagrass nursery with
the goal of restoring vital habitats in the Indian River Lagoon.
2016 – FAU Harbor Branch scientists publish a study on
leiodermatolide, a novel marine natural product isolated
from a deep-sea sponge that shows activity against
pancreatic cancer.
2018 – The Florida Center for Coastal and Human Health is
established to fulfill an unmet scientific need to understand
harmful algal blooms and their impacts.
2019 – Florida Gov.
Ron DeSantis appoints
Jim Sullivan, executive
director of FAU
Harbor Branch, to the
newly formed Florida
Governor’s Blue-Green
Algae Task Force.
2019 – After conducting
a 30-year study at Looe
In 2020, Harbor Branch aquaculture
Key, Harbor Branch
specialists spawned the first bonefish
researchers determine
in captivity.
that mass coral die-offs were partly the result of land-based
pollution from sewage, fertilizers and run-off water.
2020 – FAU Harbor Branch aquaculture researchers are first
in the world to spawn bonefish in captivity.
The Johnson-Sea-Link I submersible was revolutionary in having an
acrylic clear sphere that allowed scientists an almost 360-degree view
of the ocean.
A Harbor Branch diver takes a sample of a common undersea organism
containing antibiotic properties that heal coral poisoning lesions.