AUGUST 12, 2019 — On August 5, the Western Regional Center in Seattle was visited by a delegation of congressional travelers from Washington, D.C.  

AUGUST 5, 2019 — On July 26, the Marine Debris Program’s Gulf of Mexico Regional Coordinator, Caitlin Wessel, participated in a NOAA-funded marine debris removal and restoration project at the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) in Weeks Bay, Alabama.

JULY 29, 2019 — On July 23, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s (MDP) Northeast Regional Coordinator, Demi Fox, and Communications and Education Specialist, Jennifer Simms, led a workshop titled: How to Talk Trash: Lessons from NOAA’s Marine Debris Program at the annual National Marine Educators Association conference at the University of New Hampshire. 

JULY 29, 2019 — The week of July 22, NOAA OR&R staff held their annual Science of Oil Spills (SOS) training in Independence, at the Educational Service Center of Northeast Ohio.

JULY 19, 2019 — Oil recovery operations on a World War II-era shipwreck near Long Island, New York are now nearing completion after resulting in the removal of more than 450,000 gallons of oil over a period of nearly three months. 

JULY 22, 2019 — On July 10 and 11, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Northeast Regional Coordinator, Demi Fox, attended a Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia to update the Council on U.S.-Canada collaborations to prevent and remove marine debris throughout the bi-national region.

 JULY 22, 2019 — Last week, over 50 OR&R participants gathered to discuss some of the ethical questions about travel and tourism.

JULY 15, 2019 — On June 26, the NOAA Marine Debris Program Pacific Northwest Coordinator joined 40 current and future Puget Sound Dungeness crabbers in a well-attended workshop to learn how to catch more crabs and lose less crab pots.

JULY 15, 2019 —The OR&R Emergency Response Division sponsored a June 25-26 workshop titled “Leveraging Science and Academic Engagement” in Tiburon, California.

JULY 15, 2019 — On July 8 - 9, OR&R’s LT Michael Doig and LT Joshua Valdivia, of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) provided spill response training for USCG Sector Sault Ste. Marie. This was the last of 5 classes conducted around USCG District 9. 

JULY 1, 2019 — OR&R Emergency Response Division employees LCDR James Rosenberg and LTJG Matt Bissell visited three tribal nations (Quinault, Quileute, and Makah) the week of June 24 to provide oil spill response training to tribal members.

JULY 1, 2019 — The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) was established in 2010 with the stated goal to improve society’s ability to understand, respond to, and mitigate the impacts of petroleum pollution and related stressors of the marine and coastal ecosystems. As the conclusion of 10 years of GoMRI’s investment in research approaches, the research board has shifted focus toward achieving comprehensive scientific synthesis.

JULY 1, 2019 — OR&R Emergency Response Chief Scott Lundgren, oceanographer Chris Barker, and chemist Dalina Thrift-Viveros participated in a meeting on June 11, 2019 to discuss hazard modeling roles, responsibilities, recent incident coordination, and future exercises and engagements.

JUNE 24, 2019 — During the week of June 10-14, 2019, in Brockport, New York, scientists from around the Great Lakes region gathered to discuss important lake-based issues, including marine debris.

JUNE 24, 2019 — During the week of June 17, OR&R staff from the Emergency Response Division and the Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center held a four-day Science of Chemical Releases course in Seattle, Washington, at NOAA’s Western Regional Center and at the Institute of Ocean Science in Sidney, British Columbia.

JUNE 24, 2019 — Troy Baker, of OR&R’s Assessment & Restoration Division recently participated in a two-week exercise focused on modeling radiation doses in the terrestrial and aquatic environments. 

JUNE 24, 2019 — Dealing with medium and large debris in coastal waters can be chronic, complicated, and costly for many states.

JUNE 17, 2019 — It was a busy weekend celebrating World Ocean Day in New England. The Marine Debris Program’s (MDP) Northeast Regional Coordinator, Demi Fox, attended two of the countless events hosted across the region.

JUNE 17, 2019 — On June 4, the Marine Debris Program Director, Nancy Wallace, moderated an Ocean Plastics panel at the Blue Tech Expo in Washington, D.C.

JUNE 17, 2019 — On June 5-6, 2019, the NOAA Western Regional Collaboration Team (NOAA West) partnered with the Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) to hold a tabletop exercise which simulated an earthquake and resulting tsunami impacting the Seattle region.

JUNE 10, 2019 —The 42nd AMOP (Arctic and Marine Oil Spill Program) Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response was held June 4-6 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. 

JUNE 10, 2019 — The week of June 3, OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division partnered with the Hudson River Estuary Program/Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve at the Great Fish Count at Lemon Creek Park in Staten Island.

JUNE 3, 2019 — On May 24, Kate Wheelock, Chief of the Disaster Preparedness Program, presented on the full breadth NOS operational response capabilities at the FEMA Region 3 (Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia) bi-annual Regional Interagency Steering Committee (RISC) Meeting.

JUNE 3, 2019 — OR&R’s Emergency Response Division Chief, Scott Lundgren, met with the leadership of the American Salvage Association (ASA) on May 23.

JUNE 3, 2019 — The next generation of environmental scientists learned about current aquatic issues in the news with the help of Troy Baker, an environmental scientist in OR&R's Assessment and Restoration Division.

JUNE 3, 2019 — The Southeast and Caribbean NOAA Disaster Resilience Workshop was held May 14-16 at the Office for Coastal Management-Charleston.

MAY 28, 2019 — NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator LCDR Jim Rosenberg participated in an oil spill response exercise in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard, Washington Department of Ecology, and the British Columbia Ministry of Environment in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on May 22.

MAY 28, 2019 — On May 16, the Marine Debris Program's Pacific Northwest and California Regional Coordinators, Nir Barnea and Sherry Lippiatt, contributed to a webinar "Current Actions of the U.S. West Coast Marine Debris Plans," hosted by OCTO and the West Coast Marine Debris Alliance.

MAY 28, 2019 — The 2019 Arctic Incident of National Significance (IoNS) Workshop/Exercise was held May 21-22 in Anchorage, Alaska.

MAY 28, 2019 —OR&R staff from the Emergency Response Division (ERD) and the Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) participated in Chevron’s 2019 Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) exercise this week held in Covington, Louisiana.

MAY 28, 2019 — On May 13-15, Marine Debris Program Director, Nancy Wallace, served as the Head of Delegation for the United States at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum workshop in Nha Trang, Vietnam.

  MAY 20, 2019 — On April 11, OR&R’s Emergency Response Division Chief Scott Lundgren and Senior Scientist Lisa DiPinto attended the Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC) Annual Meeting at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters. 

MAY 20, 2019 — At the most recent meeting of the RRT3 (consisting of representatives from the 15 federal agency and the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia) the decision was made to perform courtesy visits to state capitols in an effort to educate state senior executives on the current dispersant pre-authorization memorandum of agreement (MOA).

MAY 20, 2019 — The Marine Debris Program is excited to announce the winners of the third annual Ohio Marine Debris Challenge!

MAY 20, 2019 — NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) Adam Davis presented on the role of the NOAA SSC during the recent National Academies of Science and Gulf of Mexico Research Institute (GOMRI) co-sponsored workshop,  “Preparing for Oil Spills in the Eastern Gulf: health, economic resilience, and community well-being”. 

MAY 20, 2019 — Each year the leadership from the U.S. national and regional oil and hazardous substance preparedness and response interagency partners gather to share information and plan future work. 

By Doug Helton, Office of Response and Restoration

During National Safe Boating Week (May 18-24), NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration is taking a closer look at the anatomy of abandoned and derelict vessels. In this first blog, take a peek at some of the hidden hazards of a sunken vessel.

Last Updated: May 16, 2019

MAY 13, 2019 — On May 8, Rear Admiral Shepard Smith, Director of NOAA Office of Coast Survey, testified at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

MAY 13, 2019 — The Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) has started planning for FY2020! DPP staff gathered at the Disaster Response Center (DRC) May 7-9 for an FY2020 operational planning meeting.

MAY 13, 2019 — On May 1, the Marine Debris Program’s Gulf of Mexico Regional Coordinator, Caitlin Wessel, worked with the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and the beachfront towns of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, Alabama to educate their summer employees about marine debris issues through a one-day class.

MAY 13, 2019 — The Department of Justice announced that a consent decree was lodged in the hazardous waste case of Exxon Mobil Former Fertilizer Plants. in Charleston, South Carolina.

MAY 6, 2019 — On April 16-17, Sarah Latshaw, Southeast regional coordinator for the Marine Debris Program, and Raishan Peterson, grants management specialist with the NOAA Grants Management Division, visited the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA DNR) office in Brunswick, Georgia.

MAY 6, 2019 — During the summer of 2017, the Caribbean was pounded and devastated by two major hurricanes (Irma and Maria). Two years later, recovery continues. With the 2019 official hurricane season nearing, a NOAA Regional Preparedness Training Workshop was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico April 23-25, 2019.

MAY 6, 2019 — On April 9, OR&R’s biological oceanographer Dr. Carl Childs from the Emergency Response Division attended a colloquium on “Microbial Genomics of the Global Ocean System” on April 9-10, 2019. The event was a part of the ongoing Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative’s Legacy and Synthesis effort to consolidate scientific research that followed the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

MAY 6, 2019 — On April 24-25, Carlie Herring, research analyst and Jason Rolfe, Mid-Atlantic regional coordinator for the Marine Debris Program, participated in a workshop on “Microplastics in the Chesapeake Bay and its Watershed: State of the Knowledge, Data Gaps, and Relationship to Management Goals.”

APRIL 26, 2019 — The 6th Annual Arctic Encounter (AES) Symposium was held in Seattle on April 25 and 26.

APRIL 26, 2019 — On April 16-18, Adam Davis, LT Michael Doig, and Ed Levine attended the Clean Waterways conference in Cincinnati, Ohio.

APRIL 19, 2019 — Ken Finkelstein attended the 2019 North Atlantic Chapter short course on April 8 at University of Massachusetts/Boston. 

APRIL 19, 2019 — On April 11, the OR&R Emergency Response Division Chief joined RDML Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D., USN Ret., the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Deputy NOAA Administrator, for a visit to the U.S. National Response Center (NRC) based at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters.

APRIL 19, 2019 — On April 10, Amy Holman, NOAA Regional Coordinator for Alaska led a remote NOAA communications exercise in support of Alaska Shield, a tri-annual state-wide emergency response exercise.

APRIL 19, 2019 — On April 10, Amy Holman, NOAA Regional Coordinator for Alaska led a remote NOAA communications exercise in support of Alaska Shield, a tri-annual state-wide emergency response exercise.

APRIL 12, 2019 — On April 9 and 10, the Marine Debris Program (MDP) hosted a workshop in Silver Spring, Maryland, for divisions across the Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) to better understand roles and responsibilities both during and outside of emergency response.

APRIL 12, 2019 — Leah Moore, a Hollings Scholar, will be working at OR&R in Seattle this summer with the West Coast Branch of OR&R's Assessment and Restoration Division.

APRIL 5, 2019 — OR&R Restoration staff participated in U.S. Coast Guard, Sector Juneau’s National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) full scale exercise in Juneau, Alaska.

APRIL 5, 2019 — During the week of March 25, NOAA OR&R staff held their annual Science of Oil Spill (SOS) training in Mobile, Alabama at NOAA’s Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center.

APRIL 5, 2019 — At the request of U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Puget Sound's Incident Management Division, OR&R personnel facilitated a group exercise at the USCG Air Station in Port Angeles, Washington on April 3.

MARCH 29, 2019 — This week, leveraging our longstanding relationship with the Coastal Response Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, OR&R’s senior scientist collaborated with researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the Environmental Protection Agency, Water Mapping LLC, and Sea Scan MK2 ECA Group on a project to calibrate various sensors under development for detecting and characterizing oil in the water column.

MARCH 29, 2019 — During the fourth session of the U.N. Environment Assembly (March 11-15, 2019), the United Nations' Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) released its report, Guidelines for the monitoring and assessment of plastic litter and microplastics in the ocean.

MARCH 29, 2019 — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held a Northeast (Region 5) freshwater mussel workshop at the Virginia Commonwealth University, Rice Rivers Center, in Charles City, Virginia from March 18 to March 20.

MARCH 22, 2019 — Working under the 2001 Memorandum of Agreement between the National Response Team and the Panama Canal Authority (in Spanish – Authoridad del Canal de Panama - ACP), OR&R’s Emergency Response Division (ERD) is collaborating to update the hydrography of the Canal Zone for trajectory model analysis.

MARCH 22, 2019 — OR&R Emergency Response Division Chief Scott Lundgren and Senior Scientist Lisa DiPinto participated in events on March 18 and 19 relating to a new American Academies of Arts and Science’s publication on Science During Crisis: Best Practices, Research Needs, and Policy Priorities, receiving an advance briefing with other NOAA line office representatives and attending an event rollout with other department and agency representatives and interested parties.

MARCH 8, 2019; UPDATED MARCH 25, 2019 — OR&R staff and scientists are busy preparing for a number of upcoming trainings for the U.S. Coast Guard and other response partners.

MARCH 15, 2019 — The week of March 11, NOAA OR&R staff conducted oil spill science and response training in Hagatna, Guam for over 40 spill responders and planners.

MARCH 15, 2019 — On March 8, the Department of Justice announced that a consent decree was lodged in the hazardous waste case Atlantic Wood Industries in Portsmouth, Virginia.

MARCH 15, 2019 — On March 9, 2019, the Marine Debris Program’s Gulf of Mexico Regional Coordinator, Caitlin Wessel, attended the Mobile Baykeeper’s post-Mardi Gras cleanup on One Mile Creek in downtown Mobile, Alabama.

MARCH 8, 2019 — As he has in past years, OR&R environmental scientist Ken Finkelstein officiated at the 2019 National Ocean Science Bowl regional competition at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 3.

MARCH 8, 2019 — For the first time in over a decade, OR&R staff will host training for oil spill planners and responders in Hagatna, Guam on March 11.

MARCH 1, 2019 — On February 26, the Marine Debris Program’s Northeast Regional Coordinator, Demi Fox, attended SWANApalooza, the Solid Waste Association of North America’s annual conference and trade show in Boston, Massachusetts.

MARCH 1, 2019 — The week of February 25, the OR&R Emergency Response Division, NOAA Marine Fisheries/Greater Atlantic Regional Field Office, and the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC - a joint NOAA/University of New Hampshire research center) brought response, management and seafood inspection authorities from state and federal levels together to discuss fisheries management following a major pollution event in the Gulf of Maine. 

MARCH 1, 2019 — Alyson Finn, a Genwest contractor, works as an Emergency Planning Specialist for OR&R’s Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP), based out of Silver Spring, Maryland. 

FEBRUARY 22, 2019 — On February 20, 2019, the Marine Debris Program released the 2018 Action Summary Report for the Great Lakes Land-Based Marine Debris Action Plan.

FEBRUARY 22, 2019 — On February 14 – 16, the Marine Debris Program’s Chief Scientist, Amy V. Urhin, participated in the Floating Marine Macro Litter Workshop held in Rome, Italy.

FEBRUARY 15, 2019 — On December 31, 2018, the Washington Coast Derelict Fishing Gear Removal Project came to a successful completion, meeting or exceeding its stated goals.

FEBRUARY 15, 2019 — Coastal GeoTools is a biennial event dedicated to technology and coastal environmental science.

FEBRUARY 8, 2019 — The 2017 natural resource damage settlement agreement for in-river injuries reached between NOAA, our co-trustees, and parties potentially responsible for hazardous waste releases into the Raritan River from the American Cyanamid Superfund Site in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

FEBRUARY 8, 2019 — Lindsey Palardy is the Communications and Policy Specialist for NOAA’s Marine Debris Program.

FEBRUARY 8, 2019 — The Office of Response and Restoration had strong participation in this year’s Gulf of Mexico Oil Spills and Ecosystem Science Conference (GOMOSES).

The Guide outlines existing response structures at the local, state, and federal levels to facilitate a coordinated, well-managed, and immediate response to acute waterway debris incidents impacting coastal areas in the state of Texas.

DECEMBER 21, 2018 — On December 12 and 13, the NOAA Marine Debris Program collaborated with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) and the Environmental Protection Agency to host more than 40 partners at the GOMA Marine Debris Mid-year Meeting and Workshop.

DECEMBER 14, 2018 — In 2019, NOAA, along with representatives from three Tribal Nations, will begin to lead a project focused on aquatic restoration planning at the Hanford Nuclear site. 

DECEMBER 14, 2018 — From December 3-7, the Marine Debris Program’s Director, Nancy Wallace, represented OR&R at the United Nation’s second meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Expert Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics in Geneva, Switzerland.

DECEMBER 14, 2018 — This week in Silver Spring, Maryland, OR&R’s Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) held a three day NOAA-Specific Incident Command System 300 Level Training (ICS 300).

This feature is part of a monthly series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). This month’s featured scientist is Charles Grisafi, OR&R Marine Debris Program regional coordinator for Florida and the Caribbean.

DECEMBER 7, 2018 — During the week of November 26, the Marine Debris Program celebrated ten exciting years working with Fishing for Energy partners to divert derelict fishing year.

DECEMBER 7, 2018 — On November 29 and 30, the NOAA Marine Debris Program, in collaboration with the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), Marine Quest, and the NOAA Office for Coastal Management, hosted more than 50 partners at the Southeast Marine Debris Workshop.

NOVEMBER 30, 2018 — OR&R’s Ken Finkelstein, Jim Turek of the National Marine Fisheries Service Restoration Center, and Grant Blumberg of NOAA’s General Counsel participated in a public meeting on November 19 in Stratford, Connecticut. 

NOVEMBER 30, 2018 — On November 19, the Department of Justice announced that a consent decree was lodged on November 9, 2018 in the hazardous waste case of Koppers Co., Inc. in Charleston, South Carolina.

NOVEMBER 30, 2018 — Finally, November 30 marks the end of Hurricane Season 2018. Hurricane Season 2018 was extremely busy, with storms like Hurricane Florence in North Carolina, and Hurricane Michael in the Florida panhandle that left a path of destruction in their wake.

NOVEMBER 30, 2018 — West Coast federal and state trustees and oil industry representatives convened in Portland, Oregon, for the West Coast Joint Assessment Team (JAT) meeting on November 27.

This feature is part of a monthly series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). This month’s featured scientist is Ed Levine, a scientific support coordinator and supervisor in OR&R’s Emergency Response Division.

NOVEMBER 16, 2018 — Between September 18 and October 30, five NOAA offices and numerous partners collaborated on a marine debris removal mission in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands that yielded over 80 tons of marine debris.

NOVEMBER 16, 2018 — On November 3-10, Doug Helton and Catherine Berg from the OR&R's Emergency Response Division traveled with colleagues from the U.S. Coast Guard and the State of Alaska, to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia to participate in a "Seminar on Understanding Maritime Pollution Threats and Response Systems in the Russian Federation-United States Trans-Boundary Area".

NOVEMBER 9, 2018 — In October 2018, OR&R’s director, chiefs of OR&R’s Emergency Response and Marine Debris Divisions, and staff participated in a series of industry partnership information-sharing meetings.

NOVEMBER 9, 2018 — OR&R’s senior scientist, Dr. Lisa DiPinto; the chief of OR&R’s Emergency Response Division, Scott Lundgren; and OR&R biologist Gary Shigenaka participated in the 2018 Industry Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC) Annual Meeting to share information on current and emerging scientific and technical issues influencing spill response.

In 2018 NOAA reached agreements with cooperating companies across America to restore natural resources damaged by industrial pollution and oil spills. Six pollution cases were settled, totaling $34.3 million that will go toward restoration.

NOVEMBER 2, 2018 — For years, OR&R’s Emergency Response Division and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality have joined forces to teach a Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) course in Louisiana for local responders. 

NOVEMBER 2, 2018 — Cold Spring, New York, is situated in the Hudson Valley on the east bank of the Hudson River across from West Point and Crow’s Nest, about 60 miles north of New York City.

NOVEMBER 2, 2018 — On Halloween - Wednesday, October 31, scientists from OR&R participated in a seep oil technology demonstration off of Coal Oil Point near Santa Barbara, California. 

NOVEMBER 2, 2018 — On October 31, OR&R’s Diversity and Inclusion team held an event focused on substance sensitivities in the workplace.

OCTOBER 26, 2018 — OR&R staff joined public elementary school students from PS 146 in Brooklyn, NY, for their annual Plum Beach fall cleanup.

OCTOBER 26, 2018 — The Northeast Brandywine Riverfront Brownfields Area Wide Plan (AWP) in Wilmington, Delaware held a public open house and provided presentations on draft reuse alternatives developed under the EPA AWP grant.

OCTOBER 26, 2018 — On October 16, Great Lakes Scientific Support Coordinator, LT Michael Doig, joined the crew of the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown on the final leg of their around the world voyage.

OCTOBER 26, 2018 — Over the past 13 years, OR&R’s Emergency Response Division has teamed up with California’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) to provide oil spill science training known as Environmental Response to Oil Spills (EROS).

OCTOBER 19, 2018 —Dr. Amy Merten and Rob Neely, of OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division, traveled to Port Angeles, Washington, on October 9-10 to conduct site visits and meet with Elwha tribal staff.

OCTOBER 19, 2018 — On October 11, RDML Tim Gallaudet joined President Trump, Secretary Ross, Senator Whitehouse, and Senator Sullivan and Julie Fate Sullivan, at a signing ceremony for the “Save our Seas Act of 2018.”

OCTOBER 19, 2018 — From October 16-18, state and federal Natural Resource Trustees came to together for the biannual Texas Trustee Summit in Galveston, Texas, hosted by the NOAA Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program (DARRP).

OCTOBER 19, 2018 — On October 10 and 11, OR&R staff participated in the Crowley Alaska Tankers "Shippers" Exercise in Valdez, Alaska.

OCTOBER 12, 2018 — On September 21, Nir Barnea, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Pacific Northwest Regional Coordinator, met with project managers for the Makah Tribe to review the Tribe’s new derelict crab pot removal project.

OCTOBER 12, 2018 — The 41st AMOP Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response was held in Victoria, B.C. on October 2 to 4.

During the first week of September, Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 hurricane still located hundreds of miles offshore, was setting its sights to make landfall along the North Carolina-South Carolina coast. While some residents waited to see where its path would lead, others decided to heed warnings issued by the governor of North Carolina to evacuate their low-lying coastal homes.

OCTOBER 5, 2018 — Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and University of Alaska’s Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC) are developing a small Long-Range Autonomous Underwater Vehicle system (Tethys LRAUV) to detect oil spills in some of the most challenging oceanic environments on the planet, under arctic sea ice. 

OCTOBER 5, 2018 — On September 26-28, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Pacific Islands Regional Coordinator, Mark Manuel, traveled to Panama to participate in the Ghost Gear Dive Recovery Workshop held at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 — The October 2018 online/open access issue of the Water Environment Research Journal includes a multi-authored review of 2017 literature on Effects of Pollution on Marine Organisms. Four NOAA scientists were among the eight co-authors.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 — Juvenile American shad were captured for the first time upstream of the recently removed Weston Mill Dam on the Millstone River in New Jersey by sampling crews conducting biannual monitoring of this natural resource damage (NRD) restoration project.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 — From September 17-20, the OR&R and Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Commission conducted Shoreline Cleanup and Assessment Technique (SCAT) team member training at the EPA Gulf Ecology Division Laboratory in Pensacola Beach, Florida.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 — Alexis joined the Marine Debris Program (MDP) as a Communications and Education Specialist in July of 2018.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 — On September 13, Sherry Lippiatt, California Regional Coordinator for the Marine Debris Program, participated in a virtual classroom event for Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 — On September 18, the Marine Debris Program announced its FY19 “Marine Debris Research” federal funding opportunity.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 — It pays to arrive early to an International Coastal Cleanup event on September 15 - you get to pick up the best debris around.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 — Hurricane Florence has passed, but it left a coastal disaster in her wake that continues to severely impact communities, ecosystems, economies.

SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 — OR&R is happy to announce the signing of a multi-year Interagency Agreement between the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and OR&R to “standardize the use of NOAA’s Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA®) as the Common Operating Picture (COP) for USCG-led training, exercises, oil spill responses and releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants”. 

SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 — For the fifth year in a row, the Hudson River Park will host the SUBMERGE Marine Science Festival, where NOAA scientists and other experts share knowledge of our oceans, coasts, and conservation. 

SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 — On September 8, Peter Murphy, Alaska Regional Coordinator for the Marine Debris Program, presented at the inaugural Alaska Net Hack Challenge in Anchorage, with remote participation from Kodiak.

SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 — Exercise: On September 6, during an offshore lightering operation involving two large oil tankers, 1,000,000 gallons of Palanca crude oil is spilled into the Atlantic Ocean 30 miles east of Cape Henlopen, Delaware.

This week OR&R team member Kristen Faiferlick joined regional EPA representatives and attendees from a range of industries at a training on hazmat regulation and planning tools.

SEPT. 7, 2018 — On Aug. 30, Peter Murphy, Alaska regional coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program, presented and helped facilitate a marine debris workshop at the Southeast (Alaska) Environmental Conference.

SEPT. 7, 2018 — On Sept. 6, OR&R's Emergency Response Division supported the U.S. Coast Guard’s District 13 Federal On-Scene Coordinator workshop. Other presenters included contracting officers from Coast Guard headquarters, Washington State’s Historic Preservation Officer, and a team of salvage masters from Global Diving and Salvage.

AUG. 31, 2018 — Between Aug. 13 and 16, Carlie Herring, research analyst for the Marine Debris Program, participated in fieldwork as part of a collaborative microplastics pilot project between the Marine Debris Program, NCCOS Great Lakes Mussel Watch, and Loyola University.

This is the 11th in a monthly series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). This month’s featured scientist is Marine Debris Program Great Lakes Regional Coordinator Sarah Lowe.

Imagine you’ve planned a big day at the beach with your family and friends, loaded up the car with supplies, and traveled out to your favorite spot, only to find a beach littered with plastic beverage bottles, stray fishing line, chip bags, cigarette butts, and other debris. Would you stay and play, or be on your way? This is the choice that many face when heading to their local beaches.

Update: Aug. 29, 2018 — Though the Office of Response and Restoration has not yet been activated for response, parts of Hawaii were damaged by Hurricane Lane. The Big Island in particular experienced excessive amounts of rain and flooding, which may take some time to recover from. OR&R continues to stand by in the event of debris and pollution related incidents resulting from Lane. 

AUG. 24, 2018 — On August 13-14, representatives from all sectors (federal, state, county, academia, private sector, and non-governmental organizations) convened in Honolulu for the fourth update workshop of the Hawai'i Marine Debris Action Plan.

AUG. 24, 2018 — On Monday, August 20, Scott Lundgren and LT Michael Doig attended the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing entitled “Pipeline Safety in the Great Lakes: Incident Prevention and Response Efforts at the Straits of Mackinac.”

AUG. 24, 2018 — Elliott Bay Trustees, including NOAA, Department of Justice, Department of Interior and tribal representatives, toured the Lower Duwamish River in Seattle, Washington.