JUNE 16, 2017 - Do you respond to oil train accidents too? What’s the story on the garbage island? Those were some of the questions answered on June 9 by Office of Response and Restoration staff at the annual NOAA Open House in Seattle, Washington.

Every year the NOAA Seattle campus opens giving the public a chance to learn about the breadth and depth of the work NOAA does. This year more than 1,200 people came to listen to presentations, participate in outreach activities, and visit the many tables and booths available both outdoors and in buildings throughout the campus.

It also gave the public an opportunity to walk the trail along Washington Lake that is otherwise closed to them.

The Office of Response and Restoration hosted an outreach table where visitors could spin a wheel to test their knowledge about marine debris or watch a demonstration of our GNOME trajectory model.

Ens. Matthew Bissell, scientific support coordinator for the Emergency Response Division, had a monitor displaying a GNOME trajectory. The trajectory demonstration was particularly popular with the public, drawing the curiosity of both adults and children. Having GNOME operating at the booth gave us an opportunity to explain our modeling and visualization applications software to a crowd.

How many crab pots are lost in the Puget Sound every year? What are microplastics? If you spun the Maine Debris wheel of questions at the table, you could give an answer. Marine Debris’s Nir Barnea and intern Matt Coomer stood ready to answers visitors' questions. Marine debris - from tiny microplastics, to trash, to fishing gear, and even derelict vessels - is a perennial global problem, one that people care about and feel empowered to address. To find out more about the Marine Debris Program, please check the website.

The Assessment and Restoration Division was well represented at the event with Alyce Fritz, Chief of the Atlantic Branch, and Joe Inslee volunteering in the afternoon. Fritz engaged visitors with information about the division’s work at toxic waste sites in the Northeast.

There was a steady stream of people the entire day and it was an excellent opportunity for our staff to meet with the public and tell them about our service and accomplishments.

For further information, contact Annie.Archer@noaa.gov.

Go back to OR&R Weekly Report.