Supporting Clean, Healthy Coasts and Economies

Prepare • Respond • Restore • Recover

The Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) serves coastal communities, their economies, and the environment by helping to ensure they are clean and healthy to the impacts of hazards like oil, chemicals, and marine debris. We do this by focusing our team’s service on preparedness, response, restoration, and recovery. Learn more about who we are.

OR&R Services
Disaster and Pollution

OR&R delivers critical services to address increasing impacts from disasters and from pollution due to oil, chemicals, and marine debris. Our pollution and disaster mandates provide the backbone for our mission to the changing nature of coastal threats and hazards, which impact our coastal communities and the economies on which they rely.

Oil and Chemical Spill Response

OR&R provides scientific support to over 150 oil and chemical spills in U.S. waters annually. Spills impact lives, property, and public natural resources, as well as disrupt marine transportation with widespread economic impacts.

Oil and Chemical Natural Resource Restoration

OR&R and partners assess the impacts of oil spill and industrial pollution incidents and reach legal settlements with those responsible to fund restoration. Over the past 30+ years, NOAA and co-trustees have helped recover $10.8 billion for restoration of injured resources across the country.

Marine Debris Prevention and Removal

OR&R investigates and prevents the adverse impacts of marine debris. Since 2006, we have supported over 260 marine debris removal projects and removed more than 38,000 metric tons of marine debris from our coasts and ocean.

Emergency and Disaster Preparedness

Through planning, training, exercises, disaster coordination, and continuous improvement, OR&R ensures the National Ocean Service and its partners have the tools and information necessary to plan for and respond to disasters so commerce, communities, and natural resources can recover as quickly as possible.