The R/V CAPE HATTERAS is owned by the National Science Foundation and operated under a renewable Charter Party Agreement by the Duke/UNC Oceanographic Consortium.  Her homeport is at  Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina and she is scheduled by UNOLS (University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System). Her areas of operation are the North American coast from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean, and beyond Bermuda.  She is operated primarily as a Regional Zone Research Vessel.