APRIL 29, 2024 — On April 23, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, announced a request for proposals under the Hurricane Response Marine Debris Removal Fund.
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APRIL 29, 2024 — During an early April Nor’easter, team members from OR&R’s Emergency Response Division hosted two dozen students at a Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) training in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
APRIL 29, 2024 — On April 23, Nancy Wallace, director of the NOAA Marine Debris Program within the Office of Response and Restoration, spoke about the dangers of plastic pollution to an audience of Pfizer employees as a part of its company-wide Earth Week seminar series.
April 2024
APRIL 22, 2024 — NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) teamed up with the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) and NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to participate in a tri-annual, full-scale national oil spill exercise as part of the Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP). The exercise, hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida, was conducted on April 16-17.
APRIL 22, 2024 — The past century of warfare and commerce has left a legacy of merchant and military shipwrecks across the world’s ocean. These wrecks pose threats from oil, munitions, and other hazardous cargo, but are also historical resources, artificial reefs, recreational dive sites, and many are war graves. An estimated 8,000 vessels were sunk in World War II alone and the major flag states, including the U.S., UK, Germany, and Japan, all have potentially polluting wrecks in their waters.
APRIL 22, 2024 — Oil spills and hazardous waste releases can close fisheries and beaches, kill wildlife, and adversely impact the coastal communities that rely on clean and productive waterways.
APRIL 22, 2024 — On April 15, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, in partnership with the NOAA Marine Debris Program, announced a request for proposals under the Nationwide Fishing Trap Removal, Assessment, and Prevention (TRAP) Program. With funding from the NOAA Marine Debris Program provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science will award up to $1,475,000 in grants to remove derelict fishing traps throughout coastal waterways of the United States while collecting data to prevent future gear loss.
APRIL 15, 2024 — On April 8, the NOAA Marine Debris Program, within OR&R, participated in a derelict fishing gear processing day organized by Stockton University as part of their FY22/23 Inflation Reduction Act award. Participating in the gear processing event were Stockton University researchers and staff, roughly 20 undergraduate students, several commercial crabbers, and a member of Senator Cory Booker’s staff. Marine Debris Program Deputy Director MaryLee Haughwout and Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinator Katie Morgan also participated.
APRIL, 15, 2024 - On March 26, OR&R’s Scientific Support and Regional Preparedness Coordinator William Whitmore shared emergency preparedness and response information during a presentation at the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, Florida.
APRIL 15, 2024 — On April 8, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice proposed a settlement to restore natural resources impacted by the Flint Hills Dock #5 oil spill. Per the consent decree, the responsible party will pay $427,000 for restoration and future costs, plus $162,213 of remaining trustee assessment costs, and a $400,000 Clean Water Act civil penalty.
APRIL 15, 2024 — In a few weeks time, spill response community professionals from around the nation and the world will gather at the 2024 International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC 2024), to be held May 13-16 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
APRIL 15, 2024 — From March 8-10, finalists of the 2023-2024 Great Lakes AquaHacking Challenge and its Water Issue Leaders convened in Traverse City, Michigan for a water innovation expedition. Haley Dalian, Great Lakes Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program, within OR&R, serves as one of two Water Issue Leaders for the Microplastics topic.
APRIL 15, 2024 — On August 31, 2023, while monitoring an active hawksbill and green sea turtle nesting beach, the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (PRDNER) found and reported a 40-foot drug runner sailboat modified to operate as a semi-submersible (low profile vessel) grounded on Mona Island, Puerto Rico.
APRIL 15, 2024 — From April 2-3, Texas and federal trustees met at the South Texas Ecotourism Center in Laguna Vista, Texas for the bi-annual Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Texas Trustee Summit. Trustees included members from NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Interior, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas Office of Attorney General, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and Texas General Land Office.
APRIL 15, 2024 — Following a competitive review process, the NOAA Marine Debris Program and National Marine Sanctuary Foundation are pleased to announce the 12 recipients of the Ocean Odyssey Fiscal Year 2024 Marine Debris Awards for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility (DEIJA).
APRIL 8, 2024 — One of the key tools used in oil spill response, Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps and data, is now available on NOAA GeoPlatform, a cloud GIS application based on Esri’s ArcGIS Online. NOAA GeoPlatform provides access to a wide suite of trusted geospatial data, services, and applications that help support NOAA's mission.
APRIL 8, 2024 —NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) is busy at work to address a container spill off of the California coast. On February 7, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) contacted the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator for California to report the loss of 24 shipping containers from the M/V President Eisenhower the prior night, approximately 64 nautical miles southwest of Monterey, California.
APRIL 8, 2024 — On April 2, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a proposed settlement valued at approximately $6.65 million to compensate for natural resource injuries resulting from a tank fire in Deer Park, Texas. The event involved the release of thousands of barrels of hazardous substances and oil.
APRIL 8, 2024 — NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator for Oceania, Ruth Yender, joined a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) team in meetings held in Majuro, Marshall Islands on April 1-5 with the Republic of the Marshall Islands Environmental Protection Agency (RMI EPA) to assist with oil spill response planning and preparedness.
APRIL 8, 2024 — When oil spills into the ocean and washes up on coastal shorelines, spill response teams survey the status of the affected shorelines using a systematic method known as Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT). Assessment of these shorelines generates a large amount of data, which is used to map and characterize the extent of the shoreline oiling, prioritize cleanup, and to document the effectiveness of response measures.
APRIL 8, 2024 — After hurricane season came to an end on November 30, 2023, OR&R’s Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) started continuous improvement efforts to prepare for the 2024 season. Every year, OR&R leads the National Ocean Service (NOS) Incident Management Team (IMT) through a hotwash review following the season. Staff were able to express what went well, what could be improved, and record any additional lessons that were learned.
March 2024
APRIL 1, 2024 — The Emergency Response Division of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R), provided three days of Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) training for the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Charleston on March 19-21, 2024.
MARCH 25, 2024 — OR&R’s Ruth Yender, the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator for Oceania, assisted with an oil spill response workshop sponsored by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), held in Dili, Timor-Leste from March 18–22. The workshop was intended to assist Timor-Leste agencies as they develop national level emergency response plans.
MARCH 25, 2024 — On March 14, the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) wrapped up a month of partner-led virtual workgroup meetings to discuss the California Ocean Litter Strategy (OLS). The meetings brought together over 75 partners from across the state and included a diverse set of sectors, including state agencies, nonprofits, private organizations, and academia.
MARCH 25, 2024 — OR&R’s Brad Benggio, the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) assigned to the U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) Seventh District in Miami, Florida, recently participated in a tabletop oil spill exercise in Ponce, Puerto Rico to support emergency response training.
MARCH 25, 2024 — During the week of March 11, OR&R’s Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) held a three-day NOAA-specific Incident Command System 300 (ICS 300) Level Training at NOAA’s Inouye Regional Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. This training was the first in-person NOAA ICS 300 class since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. During the interim, the class has been held virtually to ensure NOAA staff are trained in ICS 300.
MARCH 25, 2024 — During the week of March 18, oil spill specialists from OR&R’s Emergency Response Division conducted a Science of Oil Spills (SOS) class for the Southern region in Mobile, Alabama. SOS classes aim to help spill responders increase their understanding of oil spill science when analyzing spills and making risk-based decisions.
MARCH 25, 2024 — On March 15, 2024, NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) staff met on Harkers Island, North Carolina with North Carolina Coastal Federation (NCCF) grantees and staff from the offices of U.S. Senators Tom Tillis and Ted Budd to share highlights of their derelict vessel removal project supported by Inflation Reduction Act funds.
MARCH 18, 2024 — On March 13, several offices from NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) participated in the Florida Floodplain Managers Association’s (FFMA) virtual “Hot Topics” class focused on hurricane preparation. Participants from various organizations in Florida, including local governments and private industries, joined NOS representatives to learn more about our organization’s capabilities for hurricane preparation, response, and recovery.
MARCH 18, 2024 — In March of 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced two proposed settlements to compensate for natural resource injuries resulting from hazardous substances released in the Lower Duwamish River in Washington state.
MARCH 18, 2024 — OR&R’s Science of Chemical Releases (SOCR) classes are back at the NOAA Disaster Response Center (DRC) in Mobile, Alabama. After being held virtually for several years after the COVID-19 pandemic, SOCR classes returned to in-person in 2023 with a class at USCG Sector Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida.
MARCH 11, 2024 — The Newtown Creek Trustees are announcing to the public the Draft Natural Resource Damage Assessment Plan outlining potential injuries to natural resources related to releases of contamination at this Superfund site. Public participation, review, and input are an important part of the process of assessing and restoring natural resources.
MARCH 11, 2024 — On February 15, the Office of Response and Restoration met with the U.S. Coast Guard to commemorate the signing of the Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA®) Interagency Agreement. This milestone agreement sets forth standardized protocols for employing ERMA in U.S.