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SEPT. 16, 2024 — U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Northern New England recently completed a salvage operation of a historic sardine fishing vessel that sank in Maine during a January 2024 nor'easter. William Whitmore, the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator for Sector Northern New England provided guidance to the USCG during the response and salvage efforts.
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
SEPT. 16, 2024 — On September 6, over 300 people gathered at the William S. Cahill Pier in Oswego, New York to witness and celebrate the designation of Southeastern Lake Ontario as the nation’s 16th national marine sanctuary.
SEPT. 16, 2024 — On September 4, NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator for the Pacific Islands, Ruth Yender, participated in the 2024 U.S.-Taiwan Coast Guard Marine Environmental Response Group Online Symposium Program. The objective of the symposium was to deepen the cooperation between Taiwan and the U.S. in marine environmental response by providing an opportunity for dialogue and enhancing understanding of each other.
September 2015
SEPT. 11, 2015--The NOAA Marine Debris Program is a proud sponsor of the annual International Coastal Cleanup. This year, the cleanup is taking place on Saturday, September 19th across the globe from 9 am to noon.
SEPT. 11, 2015--The Hudson River Natural Resource Trustees, which include NOAA, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the State of New York, have determined that the tested groundwater of three New York towns along the Hudson River is sufficiently contaminated that it exceeds groundwater standards.
SEPT. 11, 2015--During the second week of September, the Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center (DRC) hosted the course Floodplain Management through the National Flood Insurance Program (L-273).
SEPT. 11, 2015--The Kalamazoo River natural resource trustees are asking for comment on a draft plan outlining potential projects to restore natural resources along the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
When the 2011 Japanese tsunami washed a 66-foot-long dock onto Oregon's shores, it spurred beach monitoring programs up and down the West Coast and Pacific islands. The only way anyone would know if Japan tsunami marine debris started arriving is by counting how much debris was already showing up there on a regular basis. What have they found so far?
August 2015
As dredging of New York's Hudson River Superfund Site wraps up, OR&R concludes that additional removal of PCB-contaminated sediments in the Upper Hudson River is necessary to achieve pollution reductions in Lower Hudson fish.
NOAA representatives from programs in Seattle participated in a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) expo for students living in Sandpoint Brettler Family Housing, next to the NOAA Western Regional Center.
OR&R recently conducted its Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) training in the Arctic for the very first time.
This week the Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center partnered with NOAA's Office for Coastal Management to hold a training on planning and facilitating collaborative meetings.
On a visit to San Francisco, California, last week, students from Japan learned about the marine debris issue, impacts, prevention, and the U.S. response to debris generated by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
This week the NOAA Marine Debris Program announced more than $675,000 in grant awards to 13 projects aimed at aiding coastal communities in their fight against marine debris.
AUGUST 24, 2015--Staff from the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) participated in an international marine debris workshop held in Berlin, Germany, August 3-5, 2015.
AUGUST 24, 2015--The week of August 17, 2015, OR&R said thanks to the Oil Pollution Act for 25 years of oil spill prevention, cleanup, and environmental restoration.
AUGUST 24, 2015--The week of August 17, 2015, a team of scientists from Office of Response and Restoration’s Emergency Response Division traveled to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
AUGUST 24, 2015--The week of August 17, 2015, the NOAA Marine Debris Program published a federal funding opportunity to Grants.gov. This opportunity provides funding to support locally-driven, marine debris prevention, assessment, and removal projects that will benefit coastal habitat, waterways, and NOAA trust resources. Projects awarded through this grant competition implement on-the-ground marine debris removal activities, with priority for those targeting medium to large-scale debris, including derelict fishing gear.
Debbie Payton Receives a Grand Send-off from DOC and NOAA Leadership and Scott Lundgren Takes the Reins!
AUGUST 14, 2015--Marine Debris Program staff piqued the interest of the participants who attended the "Communicating Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences (COSIA)" workshop at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
AUGUST 14, 2015--On August 13, 2015, at Boxcar Park in Everett, the Northwest Strait Initiative and invited guests celebrated the completion of derelict fishing net removal from shallow waters of Puget Sound.
AUGUST 14, 2015--On August 4, 2015, Kevin Kirsch of OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division and Sean Meehan of NOAA’s Restoration Center provided a boat tour for staff of the House Appropriations Committee of the recently completed restoration for impacts resulting from 2004 release of acidic process water released from the Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC storage containment system during Hurricane Frances near Tampa, Florida.
AUGUST 14, 2015--The Damage Assessment, Response and Restoration Program (DARRP) Communications Team is excited to announce the launch of the new DARRP website!
AUGUST 7, 2015--A football-field sized barge carrying nearly 3,400 super-sacks of marine debris from remote and rugged beaches from Alaska and British Columbia docked at the Waste Management facility in Seattle, Washington, on August 6, 2015.
AUGUST 7, 2015--On August 5, 2015, NOAA and trustees issued a press release announcing a public meeting and the posting of a restoration scoping document for the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation site in Navassa, North Carolina.
AUGUST 7, 2015--On August 6, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that more than 56 parties have agreed to restore key salmon habitat on the White River, which flows through King and Pierce Counties in Washington, to resolve their liability for natural resource damages caused by hazardous substances released into the Thea Foss and Wheeler-Osgood Waterways in Tacoma’s Commencement Bay.
AUGUST 7, 2015--The Delaware River Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) held the Brownfields Revitalization Community of Practice Meeting at the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Camden, New Jersey on July 30, 2015.
AUGUST 7, 2015--OR&R staff coordinated with Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS), NMFS Office of Protected Resources (OPR) and National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) to conduct a workshop titled "Developing Guidance for Assessing Injuries to Marine Mammals from Oil Spills."
July 2015
JULY 31, 2015--The Summary of Conclusions on the March 2015 FEMA National Exercise Program Oil Train Workshop titled Operation Safe Delivery Exercise Series,” was recently released.
JULY 31, 2015--On July 24 – 26, 2015, the NOAA Marine Debris Program partnered with NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Office, Protected Resources Division, to exhibit at the 2015 Revere Beach Sand Sculpting Festival in Revere, Massachusetts.
JULY 31, 2015--On July 21 through 23, 2015, three staff members from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) learned how to generate data for OR&R’s Trajectory Analysis Planner application, TAP.
JULY 24, 2015--Over the last two weeks the Spatial Data Branch provided remote support for the USCG Research & Development Center’s Arctic Technology Demonstration off the coast of the North Slope of Alaska.