MAY 20, 2024 — The NOAA Marine Debris Program Chief Scientist, Amy V. Uhrin, attended the first meeting of the Social Cost of Plastic Pollution Working Group of the National Center for Environmental Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS).
OR&R Weekly Report
The Office of Response and Restoration publishes this weekly round-up of news and information of interest to our partners, stakeholders, and team members. Click to subscribe
July 2022
JULY 11, 2022 — OR&R Director Scott Lundgren visited the joint OR&R and University of New Hampshire Coastal Response Research Center on June 23, 2022. This visit provided the opportunity to hear from the center’s staff, student researchers, and visiting University of Puerto Rico students working on OR&R-related CRRC projects and other related environmental projects at the university for two months during the summer.
JULY 11, 2022 — The nation’s ports are vital links for the movement of people and goods, and their protection is of critical importance. Recently, the manager of OR&R’s Environmental Sensitivity Index program and the chief of OR&R’s Emergency Response Division gave a presentation to the American Association of Port Authorities about the benefits of using ESI data to support port activities across the country.
JULY 11, 2022 — Recently, LCDR Rachel Pryor presented at the Environmental Emergency Management Conference hosted by Michigan’s Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy state department.
JULY 11, 2022 — In May, the Marine Debris Program welcomed Elena Aguilar as part of the NOAA Experiential Research and Training Opportunity internship program.
JULY 11, 2022 — On June 14-16, 2022, the Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) partnered with the Homeland Security Program Office to hold NOAA’s National Level Exercise.
JULY 11, 2022 — On June 17, the Marine Debris Program's Pacific Northwest Regional Coordinator Andrew Mason and Monitoring Coordinator Hillary Burgess met with partners from the Grassroots Garbage Gang and Willapa Bay National Wildlife Refuge on the Long Beach peninsula of Washington.
JULY 11, 2022 — On June 28, NOAA Marine Debris Program Director, Nancy Wallace, participated in an official side event as part of the UN Ocean Conference. The virtual panel discussed the issue of plastic pollution with a specific emphasis on answering what key science and innovation is needed to tackle this global environmental challenge.
JULY 11, 2022 — On June 29, the NOAA Marine Debris Program announced the Fiscal Year 2022 NOAA Marine Debris Removal notice of funding opportunity. Funding for this opportunity is provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
JULY 11, 2022 — OR&R's Disaster Preparedness Program is currently seeking a college intern who is passionate about disaster preparedness and excited to explore questions on human behavior and disasters.
June 2022
JUNE 27, 2022 — Among the many hats that personnel from OR&R’s Emergency Response Division wear, one of their most critical roles are instructing federal and state agencies in the art of Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) and Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI). Preparing the U.S. Coast Guard and state spill response agencies allows for an effective incident response and protection of our nation's sensitive habitats.
JUNE 27, 2022 — OR&R has created a new landing page to highlight the work that our office does to contribute to Coastal Resilience.
JUNE 27, 2022 — On June 3, NOAA Marine Debris Program team member Shanelle Naone presented to high school students from Leilehua High School (Wahiawā, O‘ahu) participating in the GEAR UP program.
JUNE 27, 2022 — On June 21 and 22, NOAA's Marine Debris Program coordinated and presented at the virtual 2022 California Ocean Litter Prevention Strategy Implementation Workshop. The workshop brought together over 90 people from across the state and from a diverse set of sectors, including state agencies, nonprofits, private sector, and academia.
JUNE 27, 2022 — On June 9, 2022, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay was selected by the Migratory Bird Council to receive the Presidential Migratory Bird Stewardship Award. The award recognized the collective efforts of several Area Committee organizations, including the OR&R's Emergency Response Division, U.S Environmental Protection Agency, U.S Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, Inc., and the States of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
JUNE 27, 2022 — On Saturday, June 11, NOAA's Assessment and Restoration Division and Restoration Center joined the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Hudson River Estuary Program during its World Fish Migration Day event at Lemon Creek Park in Staten Island, New York.
JUNE 13, 2022 — On June 2 and 3, 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program, in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Trash Free Waters Program, hosted a virtual workshop, conducted in Spanish, for the development of an action plan that will contain strategic and coordinated actions to address the challenges of aquatic debris in Puerto Rico.
JUNE 13, 2022 — Ruth Yender, scientific support coordinator for OR&R’s Emergency Response Division, participated in a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command-sponsored Oil Spill Response Workshop held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from June 6-10. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is one of six geographic combatant commands defined by the Department of Defense's Unified Command Plan.
JUNE 13, 2022 — On May 23, the Wildlife and Habitat Impacts Working Group of the Southeast Marine Debris Action Plan led a webinar to share the new app Tangled in Trash: A Reporting Tool For Wildlife. The webinar shared why collecting wildlife entanglement and ingestion data is important and demonstrated how users can report observations using the mobile or online version.
JUNE 13, 2022 — During the week of May 23, NOAA Marine Debris Program California Regional Coordinator Christy Kehoe and Marine Debris California Sea Grant Extension Fellow Tanya Torres supported California State University Channel Islands Santa Rosa Island Research Station, a long-term grant partner, on a week-long site visit to remove and assess the amounts, types, and sources of marine debris on the Channel Islands.
JUNE 13, 2022 — On March 21, 2022 the Tug Western Mariner ran aground in Neva Strait, north of Sitka, Alaska, resulting in a diesel oil spill. OR&R has been providing support for the response, cleanup, and damage assessment for the spill since the incident occurred.
JUNE 13, 2022 — On June 7, the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal natural resource trustees — the Fish and Wildlife Service/U.S. Department of the Interior and NOAA — announced an opportunity for public comment on a draft Interim settlement and crediting agreement with the BASF Corporation.
JUNE 13, 2022 — On May 24-25, 2022 OR&R’s Emergency Response Division presented at the Northwest Area Committees Environmental Unit Training.
JUNE 6, 2022 — Last week, a collaborative research team led by NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration conducted experiments at the Ohmsett test tank facility in Leonardo, New Jersey. These experiments were the first conducted at the tank since the completion of the multi-month facility refurbishment.
JUNE 6, 2022 — Protecting America’s waterways and coastal regions from the effects of oil and chemical spills is a collaborative mission, and OR&R’s Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) program strives to build a community of partners. On May 19, Nicolle Rutherford, ESI Program manager, gave a presentation on the available data and many uses of ESIs for Save the River, an organization in northern New York that serves as the Upper St. Lawrence Riverkeeper.
JUNE 6, 2022 — A new article titled “Ecosystem-Service Scaling Techniques to Evaluate the Benefits of Marine Debris Removal'' was recently published in the Journal of Environmental Management. It establishes a new framework to calculate the benefits of removing marine debris from the environment.
JUNE 6, 2022 — On May 9, NOAA Marine Debris Program staff participated in Cedar Point Amusement Park's Physics, Math, and Science Days.
JUNE 6, 2022 — The National Ocean Service’s Office for Coast Survey demonstrated their new remotely operated uncrewed surface vessel system, the EchoBoat 240, in Annapolis, Maryland to a crowd of congressional staff and stakeholders.
JUNE 6, 2022 — On May 24, NOAA Marine Debris Program team member Shanelle Naone presented to students participating in a marine debris prevention program with Zero Waste Washington.
May 2022
MAY 23, 2022 — On May 17, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, in partnership with the NOAA Marine Debris Program, announced a request for proposals under the Hurricane Response Marine Debris Removal Fund.
MAY 23, 2022 — Even our youngest learners are eager to explore ocean issues and stewardship. On Monday, May 16, the Marine Debris Program virtually engaged with four first grade classes at Wai‘alae Elementary in Honolulu.