Tom Royer, a physical oceanographer with the Institute of Marine Science (IMS), Fairbanks is a logical location for the institute, other states they putting laboratories on the coast such as Friday Harbor on San Juan Island and others, most of them not having an Institute of Marine Science growing with them and they remained marine laboratories, the importance of a university for the establishment of an institute, teaching research, students needing access to quality facilities and faculty, the quality of the institution becoming even more important when you try to attract top notch students, IMS competing with other leading marine science institutes nationally and internationally, the number of students in their program, their students having high successful in obtaining positions, former students in nearly all the major oceanographic institutions in the United States, in Alaska state government and in private industry, establishing a marine center in Seward with a salt water laboratory, attempting to build a public education facility with displays and an aquarium, and Seward being the home port for their research vessel, the Alpha Helix.
