Lt. Cmdr. Brian Parker, NOAA Corps, Assumes Command of NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter

Lt. Cmdr. Brian W. Parker, NOAA Corps, has assumed command of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship Gordon Gunter, relieving outgoing commanding officer, Cmdr. Jim Meigs, NOAA Corps.

Gordon Gunter is a 224-ft. research vessel that conducts fishery and living marine resource assessments in support of NOAA Fisheries Pascagoula, Miss., laboratory. The ship, home ported in Pascagoula, operates primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, and Caribbean Sea.

This new command will be Parker’s fourth sea tour aboard a NOAA fisheries research vessel and first ship command since joining the NOAA Corps in 1993. His shore assignments for NOAA have included port captain for NOAA’s Honolulu Port Office; Antarctic biologist for NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center’s Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division in La Jolla, Calif., and, most recently, Groundfish Division program manager for NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Oregon.

Parker is a native of Put-In-Bay, Ohio, where his father and stepmother, William and Sharon Parker, and mother and stepfather, Phoebe and John Borman, still reside.  He holds a bachelor’s degree (1986) in biology from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, and a master’s degree (2005) in management and information systems from NOVA Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.  His maritime career began in Ohio, where he served three years each as captain of MV Erie Isle for Parker Boatline Inc. (his grandfather’s company) and MV Jet Express for Jet Express Inc.  Both vessels served Port Clinton and Put-In-Bay, Ohio. He also was co-pilot for Atlantis Submarines off Waikiki Beach in Hawaii.

Parker currently resides in Newport, Ore., with his wife, Denise Parker, and children, Logan Parker and Dylan Parker.  A step daughter, Dawn Ellis, resides near San Francisco.

As part of the NOAA fleet of research ships and aircraft, Gordon Gunter is operated and managed by NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, which includes civilians and commissioned officers.  The NOAA Corps is a uniformed service of the United States, composed of officers (all scientists or engineers) who provide NOAA with an important blend of operational, management and technical skills that support the agency’s programs at sea, in the air, and ashore.

NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation.  From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA. 
 
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.