• 205. That's the number of oil spills, chemical releases, and other threats we responded to.
• 23. That's the number of training and response events hosted at the Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center.
• $2,173,514. That's the amount awarded for marine debris research and removal projects.
• 2,130. That's the number of people we trained in oil and chemical spill response and planning.
• $5,130,000. That's the amount of dollars for restoration recovered from responsible parties from settlements at two oil spills and one waste site.

From hazards and incident response recommendations to public safety guidelines and chemical properties, the new CAMEO Chemicals mobile app lets emergency responders and planners learn more about thousands of hazardous chemicals. That critical information is available even when the internet isn’t — a major benefit in emergency situations.

This is the first mobile app developed by OR&R’s Emergency Response Division. Division Chief Scott Lundgren notes, “The CAMEO Chemicals mobile app represents NOAA’s commitment to keeping our communities safe. By providing first responders with ready access to the information they need to respond to chemical emergencies and manage these risks in their communities, we are raising the bar for public safety. The app serves as an example for how government can leverage science and technology to protect citizens and the world we live in.”

CAMEO Chemicals is part of the CAMEO^® software suite, which has been developed jointly by NOAA and the Environmental Protection Agency for over 30 years. Users downloaded the app almost 16,000 times this year (in over 100 countries).

The International Oil Spill Conference, held May 2017 in Long Beach, California, is the primary technical conference and tradeshow for spill response professionals, bringing together over 1,500 responders from the private sector, government, and nongovernmental organizations to share lessons learned from actual spill responses and research around the world.

NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R), a member of the Permanent Conference Committee, contributed 10 session chairs and 10 short course instructors in five different courses, and presented seven papers and 15 posters. In the exhibit hall, OR&R was joined by the University of New Hampshire Coastal Response Research Center at a NOAA booth that showcased key applications, such as the latest version of the GNOME™ suite, the new CAMEO Chemicals mobile app and ERMA^®. The opening plenary session included Nicole LeBoeuf, the National Ocean Service assistant administrator, and the closing plenary featured Gary Shigenaka, one of OR&R’s senior scientists. OR&R also helped produce an interagency technology demonstration at the conference, focusing on how spill response technology has progressed from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 to today.

In 2017 multiple agreements were reached requiring companies to restore natural resources damaged by industrial pollution:

• Minnesota. $8.2 million will be used to restore habitats on the St. Louis River.
• South Carolina. A plan was finalized for a large marsh restoration project following injuries caused by the Koppers hazardous site.
• New Jersey. A final settlement was reached for the American Cyanamid Superfund site that will improve fish passage in the Raritan River watershed.
• Puerto Rico. A settlement from the 2009 grounding of T/V Port Stewart will fund coral habitat restoration.
• Oregon. A large-scale final restoration plan for the Portland Harbor region will benefit fish and wildlife potentially injured by industrial contamination.
• Alabama. Trustees are proposing restoration in the Upper Mobile-Tensaw River Delta to compensate for hazardous substances released from the Ciba-Geigy (McIntosh Plant).

Upgrades to ERMA^® included the addition of key oil spill response strategies around the country, improved Arctic-specific functionality, and the consolidation of data from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.

For the first time, all U.S. oil spill geographic response strategies (GRSs) GIS data can be found in one web portal. During an oil spill, GRSs provide direction to responders regarding how to protect natural, cultural or significant economic resources at risk of injury.

A new mapping view was added to Arctic ERMA^®. The polar projections of the Arctic region will be essential for emergency responders trying to estimate how far an oil spill may be from landfall. It also allows users to take a Pan-Arctic approach versus a U.S.-centric view and improves transparency and communication.

In order to reduce costs and improve the user experience, the Office of Response and Restoration consolidated environmental data associated with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill into one complete Gulf of Mexico ERMA^®.

In a coordinated effort with the National Park Service and Clemson University, the NOAA Marine Debris Program funded a research project to investigate the abundance and distribution of microplastics on national park beaches. Beach sediments were collected from 37 beaches, representing 35 national parks, monuments, seashores, and recreation areas, and analyzed for the presence of microplastics and microfibers. Researchers found microplastics or microfibers in sand samples collected from all 37 beaches. Microfibers were the predominant type of debris, found at all sampling sites and representing 97 percent of all debris by count. This “snapshot study,” in which results are based off of one sampling point in time, observed the highest concentrations of microplastics and microfibers at individual beaches in the Great Lakes and Pacific Islands, and even found microplastics and microfibers in remote areas of Alaska.

The NOAA Marine Debris Program funded a study to assess the impact of lost and abandoned crab pots on wildlife and the economy in the Chesapeake Bay. A diverse team of researchers from CSS-Dynamac Inc., Versar Inc., the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and Global Science & Technology Inc. estimated that 145,000 derelict crab pots reside in the Chesapeake Bay. Every day, commercial fishermen deploy hundreds of fishing pots, which are often lost due to storms, tangled lines or disturbance from passing vessels.

This study estimated that derelict pots kill 3.3 million unharvested blue crabs each year and unintentionally catch more than 40 fish species. From 2008 to 2014, scientists found that removing derelict pots in active fishing areas increased the blue crab harvest by 23.8 percent (38 million pounds), translating to $33.5 million over the six-year study period. This study culminated in a Guiding Framework for derelict fishing gear assessments, which can be applied to other fisheries and/or regions.

Image credit: Susan Allen, Stockton University

NOAA’s Disaster Response Center, a division of the Office of Response and Restoration, is committed to ensuring the overall preparedness of NOAA. By developing exercises of various complexities. This year, representatives from the National Ocean Service, National Weather Service, Workforce Management, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, Office of the Chief Information Officer, and the Homeland Security Program Office gathered for a one-day tabletop exercise to discuss the potential impacts caused by a simulated earthquake and subsequent tsunami on the West Coast of the United States. The scenario included a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that shook the entire Cascadia Subduction Zone — a complete rupture of the 700-mile fault line — followed by a tsunami and almost four minutes of shaking and multiple aftershocks. Exercise participants used this simulated scenario as a way to discuss the severity of a disaster and how it could potentially impact NOAA’s primary mission essential functions, mission essential functions and other responsibilities.