OCTOBER 14, 2019 — On October 7, Yaritza Rivera, NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Hurricane Response Coordinator, joined the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and National Fish & Wildlife Service Foundation (NFWF) at the South Atlantic Coastal Study (SACs) & Coastal Resilience Assessments workshop in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

OCTOBER 14, 2019 — From October 2-4, 2019, OR&R Emergency Response Chief Scott Lundgren and OR&R Senior Scientist Lisa DiPinto participated in the International Technical Advisory Committee meeting held at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, United Kingdom. 

OCTOBER 7, 2019 — On October 1-2, the NOAA Marine Debris Program Pacific Regional Coordinator, Nir Barnea, participated in the Microplastic Monitoring Workshop, conducted at the Seattle Aquarium.

OCTOBER 7, 2019 — On September 30, NOAA Marine Debris Program’s (MDP) Northeast regional coordinator, Demi Fox, along with Kara Lavender Law, research professor of oceanography at Sea Education Association, and Stewart Harris, director of marine and environmental stewardship for the Plastics Division at American Chemistry Council, joined a panel at the University of Rhode Island’s first ever Plastics: Land to Sea Summit.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 — On September 21, the Marine Debris Program and other NOAA partners participated in the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup events throughout the United States, including the Pacific Islands and Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other areas.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 — OR&R’s Emergency Response Division attended an equipment deployment exercise by Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) this past week as they practiced the transport, set up, and inventory of mobile wildlife care facilities for moderate/large oil spills. 

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 — On September 18, the NOAA Marine Debris Program announced its FY 2020 “Marine Debris Prevention” federal funding opportunity.

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 — OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division’s Spatial Data Branch and Emergency Response Division provided Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) training to Hawaii responders on September 11.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019 — Each year the SPIE Journal of Applied Remote Sensing honors teams with Best Paper Awards for contributions to science.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019 — Hurricane Dorian formed on August 24, was the fourth named storm and the first major hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season. At its peak, the National Weather Service reported that Hurricane Dorian reached Category 5 intensity with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, making this a major hurricane.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019 — On September 11, the OR&R Emergency Response Division Chief and Senior Scientist participated in the 4th quarter FY2019 Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution Research (ICCOPR) hosted by the University of Maryland’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering in College Park, Maryland.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019 — On September 10, OR&R’s Tom Brosnan, Robb Wright, Simeon Hahn, and Megan Ewald participated in the Christina River Sediment Remediation Technical Workshop in Wilmington, Delaware. 

SEPT. 3, 2019 — On Aug. 29, OR&R biologist Gary Shigenaka gave an invited presentation to the Salish Sea Association of Marine Naturalists at the Friday Harbor Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, Washington.

AUGUST 26, 2019 — On August 6 and 7, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region III and the Delaware Emergency Management Agency led a debris management training for emergency responders in Dover, Delaware.

AUGUST 26, 2019 — The Deepwater Horizon oil spill lasted for 87 days, discharged millions of barrels into the Gulf of Mexico, and posed unprecedented challenges for oil spill experts. 

AUGUST 19, 2019 — On July 31, the National Ocean Service (NOS) Zero Waste Team, comprised of 13 representatives from NOS program offices and NOS headquarters, came together at the first Zero Waste Workshop in Silver Spring, Maryland.

AUGUST 19, 2019 — On August 8, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Director, Nancy Wallace, spoke to a group of seven foreign journalists from Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Indonesia during a State Department-sponsored reporting tour covering American policy topics: "The U.S. Vision for the Indo-Pacific Region.”

AUGUST 19, 2019 — OR&R’s Simeon Hahn of the Assessment and Restoration Division organized and led the Delaware River Urban Water Federal Partnership meeting at the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) office in Dover, Delaware, on Aug 7. 

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 30 -August 1, the OR&R Diversity and Inclusion committee (D&I) met in Silver Spring, Maryland, to develop an action plan for the next two years.

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 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 22, 2019 — On July 13, Charles Grisafi, Florida and Caribbean Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program, participated in a special “bonus” Ghost Trap Rodeo event in Tampa Bay.

JULY 22, 2019 — On July 16 the OR&R Disaster Preparedness Program chief, Kate Wheelock, attended the Professional Services Council (PSC) membership meeting where she presented lessons learned from the 2018 hurricanes that devastated the mid-Atlantic coast.

JULY 22, 2019 — OR&R sponsored a NRDA (Natural Resource Damage Assessment) workshop through Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) in Hawaii from July 16-18.

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 15, 2019 — On June 26 in Oakland, California, the Marine Debris Program convened a group of 20 California non-profit and agency partners for a training workshop delivered by Root Solutions.

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 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 — 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.

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.

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 — The Gulf of Mexico Alliance 2019 All Hands Meeting was held from June 10 - 14 at the new Gulf State Lodge in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

JUNE 24, 2019 —ORR’s Emergency Response Division and their Assessment and Restoration Division, the National Marine Fisheries Service Restoration Center, NOAA Sanctuaries, and the National Weather Service participated in the BP Shipping/Alaska Tanker Company (ATC) Drill in San Mateo, California on June 18-20.  

JUNE 24, 2019 — On June 10-11 and 13-14, 2019, OR&R’s LT Michael Doig and LT Joshua Valdivia, of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) provided spill response training for USCG MSU (Marine Safety Unit) Duluth and Sector Lake Michigan.

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 and 6, the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) hosted their annual Teachers on the Estuary (TOTE) workshop at the Weeks Bay NERR in Baldwin County, Alabama.

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 week of June 3, OR&R scientists George Graettinger and Lisa DiPinto leveraged collaborative relationships with the Arctic Domain Awareness Center (ADAC) , the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), the U.S.

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 21 and 22, the Marine Debris Program (MDP) hosted more than 65 partners for the Florida Marine Debris Reduction Workshop at the Nova Southeastern University Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center in Hollywood, Florida.

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

MAY 28, 2019 — Oceanographers Christopher Barker and Dylan Righi visited the responders at the Sección de Respuesta a Emergencias (Emergency Response Section), ACP (Panama Canal Authority) May 21-23 to provide training and support for an updated version of NOAA's General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment (GNOME) model for the Panama Canal.

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 —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 — OR&R presented on several of our mapping, data management and modeling tools at the Washington State and U.S. Coast Guards Best Achievable Protection Workshop in downtown Seattle May 14-15, 2019.

MAY 20, 2019 —On May 13 and 14 OR&R participated in a coastal protection workshop conducted in coastal city of Tuy Hoa, Vietnam, as part of Pacific Partnership 2019.

MAY 20, 2019 — On April 8, Scott Lundgren, the OR&R Emergency Response Division Chief participated in a widely attended reception held by IPIECA, the global oil and gas industry association for advancing environmental and social performance, during the organization’s annual meeting. 

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 — Steve Morrison is the lead for international activities and partnership coordination for the Marine Debris Program (MDP) and works in the Silver Spring office.

Last Updated: May 16, 2019

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 April 30 and May 1, partners representing organizations in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia gathered at the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office in Gloucester, Massachusetts to finalize the Gulf of Maine Marine Debris Action Plan, which aims to coordinate efforts to prevent, study, and remove marine debris.

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 — Since the 116th Congress began on January 3, 2019, several bills have been introduced that are relevant to the work of OR&R.

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 23-24, Marine Debris Program Gulf of Mexico Regional Coordinator Caitlin Wessel visited Hurricane Harvey supplemental debris removal sites from Corpus Christi to Copano Bay, Texas. Caitlin met with groups impacted by Harvey, including the Mission Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, Texas General Lands Office (GLO), Goose Island State Park, and the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

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 3, 2019 — On April 24, the OR&R Diversity and Inclusion Committee sponsored an event on how privilege (or the lack thereof) impacts our lives. Sociologists define privilege as unearned benefits that accrue to particular groups based on their location within a social hierarchy. Having privilege varies, depending on factors such as race, gender, sexual orientation, wealth or social status, and religion. While the subject has been the focus of much attention recently, it is not new.

MAY 6, 2019 — During April 23-25, trainers from the Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) and Genwest Systems Inc. provided the NOAA-specific Incident Command System 300 course in Charleston, South Carolina.

APRIL 26, 2019 — Last week, the Marine Debris Program (MDP) celebrated Earth Day around the country.

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 — 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 16-18, 2019, staff from NOAA’s Assessment and Restoration Division, NOAA’s Restoration Center, and NOAA’s Office of General Counsel for Natural Resources participated in the biannual Texas Trustee Summit held in Port Aransas, Texas.

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 18, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Mobile held their annual Continuity of Operations (COOP) exercise at the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center (DRC).

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 — 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.

APRIL 5, 2019 — On March 27, the Marine Debris Program’s California Regional Coordinator, Sherry Lippiatt, attended the 11th National Monitoring Conference (NMC) in Denver, Colorado.

APRIL 5, 2019 — Last week, the Marine Debris Program’s Northeast Regional Coordinator, Demi Fox, spoke with a group of undergraduate MIT students at U.S. Coast Guard Sector Boston.

MARCH 29, 2019 — On March 26-28, NOAA's Emergency Response Division provided a three day oil spill response training to a variety of response and resource management agencies from around the San Francisco Bay area.

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 22, 2019 — OR&R’s Emergency Response Division Chief Scott Lundgren joined other members of the International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC) Executive Committee to plan the 2020 International Oil Spill Conference.

MARCH 22, 2019 — On March 7 and 8, Dr. Chris Barker, an oceanographer with OR&R who develops and operates our oil and chemical spill models, joined Emergency Response Division Chief Scott Lundgren in visits with several NOAA and interagency partners to ensure familiarity with our products and services including model development plans and to discuss partner initiatives and interests.

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 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 OR&R Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP), established just over a year ago, is fully staffed and moving full steam ahead.

MARCH 15, 2019 — On March 12-13, representatives of the Oregon marine debris community convened for the 2019 Oregon Marine Debris Action Plan Workshop.

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 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 8, 2019 — On March 1, the Marine Debris Program’s Gulf of Mexico Regional Coordinator, Caitlin Wessel, attended the Alabama University System’s annual Sustainability Summit in Mobile, Alabama.

MARCH 1, 2019 – If you are an oil or chemical spill responder or planner seeking spill response training, here are more upcoming opportunities!

MARCH 1, 2019 — On February 27, the OR&R Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Committee sponsored an event on mindfulness. Mindfulness is bringing one's awareness to the present moment, and has been proven to improve focus, reduce stress, enhance creativity, and improve physical health. The event provided an overview and history of mindfulness, the benefits, and tips for starting a mindfulness practice. Participants were guided through "body scan" and "raisin" exercises to experience the practice first-hand.

MARCH 1, 2019 — Last weekend, OR&R team member and Genwest employee Kristen Faiferlick attended World Information Architecture (IA) Day to learn best practices in organizing, sharing, and publicizing information.

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 22, 2019 — Each year, the Alaska Forum on the Environment brings together a diverse audience to discuss ongoing and emerging environmental issues such as contaminants, hazardous waste cleanup, hazardous materials management, and pollution prevention within Alaska’s many different communities and regions.

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

FEBRUARY 15, 2019 — On February 13, 2019, Great Lakes Scientific Support Coordinator LT Michael Doig attended an oil in ice training course hosted by U.S. Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with support from Canadian Pacific Railroad.

FEBRUARY 8, 2019 — The NOS Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) is offering a NOAA-specific ICS-300 (Incident Command System) class on April 23-25 in Charleston, South Carolina, that meets the requirements of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) used by federal agencies during expanding incidents as required by Executive Order.

FEBRUARY 8, 2019 —Vicki Loe, OR&R outreach lead; Alyssa Dillon, OR&R web editor; and Seumas Gagne, OR&R webmaster, are pleased to announce that we have completed the development and launch of a new Drupal theme for response.restoration.noaa.gov.

FEBRUARY 8, 2019 — On January 31, the Marine Debris Program (MDP) released the fifth and final revision of the Hawai‘i Marine Debris Action Plan.

FEBRUARY 8, 2019 — 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 21, 2018 — On December 18, the Marine Debris Program announced the release of its “Texas Marine Debris Emergency Response Guide.”

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).

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. 

DEC. 13, 2018 — NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration has staff on scene near Port Sulphur, Louisiana following an equipment failure on a wellhead casing in the Lake Washington-Rattlesnake Bayou area. The U.S. Coast Guard notified OR&R of the failure on Sunday, Dec. 9.

DECEMBER 7, 2018 — OR&R’s Emergency Response Division has a new team member: ENS Ololade (Lola) Ajilore.

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 — On November 17, Frank Csulak, NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator, served as the guest speaker at the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Fifth Northern Coast Guard District Division 12’s Change of Watch Ceremony.

NOVEMBER 30, 2018 — OR&R staff participated in the biennial conference of the New York and New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program (HEP). 

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.

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 — A recent OR&R publication in the journal Landscape Ecology examined how hydrodynamic drivers and physical setting influence seagrass landscape composition and configuration.

NOVEMBER 9, 2018 — On October 31, the Marine Debris Program’s Northeast Regional Coordinator, Demi Fox, spoke at the EPA’s annual Tribal Environmental Conference hosted by the Passamaquoddy Tribe in Jackman, Maine.

NOVEMBER 9, 2018 — On November 6, the Marine Debris Program’s California Regional Coordinator, Sherry Lippiatt, gave the morning keynote for the Marine Debris Solutions Conference in San Diego, California.

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 — 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 — 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 — The NOAA Unmanned Marine Systems (UMS) Symposium was held at the Stennis Space Center in Stennis, Mississippi, the week of October 29.

NOVEMBER 2, 2018 — For NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R), Fiscal Year 2018 was a year filled with new challenges and new achievements — including providing scientific support for over 200 pollution-related incidents, a prolonged response to the 2017 hurricane season, and ongoing research into the detection of oil thickness via remote sensing.

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 26, 2018 — Members of the Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) participated in the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Annual Conference this week in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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.