MAY 20, 2024 — The NOAA Marine Debris Program Chief Scientist, Amy V. Uhrin, attended the first meeting of the Social Cost of Plastic Pollution Working Group of the National Center for Environmental Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS).
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
May 2022
MAY 23, 2022 — Recently, NOAA gave a virtual presentation on the CAMEO® software suite to emergency planners from across the country at the annual National Association of SARA Title III Program Officials (NASTTPO) conference.
MAY 16, 2022 – On April 27, OR&R Director Scott Lundgren joined officials from Department of Commerce and others from the federal interagency to take part in a component of the National Level Exercise (NLE) 2022, an exercise that also incorporates a declared Spill of National Significance exercise.
MAY 16, 2022 – From April 27-28, 2022, the NOAA OR&R Director Scott Lundgren and Senior Scientist Lisa DiPinto participated in the Annual Meeting of the Spill Control Association of America (SCAA) held in Savannah, Georgia.
MAY 16, 2022 — The Annual Meeting of the NOAA Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Team was held May 3-5 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
MAY 16, 2022 — Earlier this month, the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) program’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 proposal to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) was approved for funding, allowing OR&R to refresh critical sensitivity data in the Great Lakes and drive the next generation of sensitive resource mapping nationwide.
MAY 9 — As part of the United States Patent and Trademark Office's 2022 Virtual Green Fair, NOAA gave two keynote presentations for USPTO staff.
MAY 9, 2022 — OR&R toxicologist and Alaska regional resource coordinator, Sarah Allan, co-authored a book chapter, Oil Spills in the Arctic, in a recently published book, Arctic One Health, Challenges for Northern Animals and People (Morten Tryland eds.).
MAY 9, 2022 – On Tuesday, May 3, OR&R and National Geodetic Survey staff attended the kick off of NOAA’s Hurricane Awareness Tour at Ronald Reagan National Airport, engaging with congressional staffers, media, and NOAA leadership. OR&R and NGS each play a pivotal role in hurricane preparedness, response, and recovery, from emergency response after a hurricane, to shoreline mapping imagery that helps emergency managers recover quickly from storms.
April 2022
MAY 2, 2022 – This week two experts from OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division, Bryand Duke and Ken Finkelstein, participated in the 25th annual National Ocean Science Bowl.
MAY 2, 2022 – On April 21, Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) team members gathered for the first ever Intern Symposium, presented by three undergraduate interns from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
MAY 2, 2022 – Last week experts from OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) participated in a workshop held by the National Marine Mammal Foundation and NOAA’s Restore Science Program.
MAY 2, 2022 – On April 19, NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) staff presented to the Salish Sea Stewards on marine debris and the NOAA Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP).
APRIL 24, 2022 — The NOAA Marine Debris Program and Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition's CoastWatch trained coastal community members to participate in the NOAA Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project. MDMAP engages NOAA partners and volunteers around the world to survey and record the amount and types of marine debris on shorelines.
APRIL 24, 2022 — On April 5, staff from the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) gave a virtual presentation at the hybrid International Plastic Pollution Summit hosted by Long Island University (LIU) and co-sponsored by the Global Council for Science and Environment and the Office for Science and Technology of the Embassy of France. The MDP's Chief Scientist, Amy V.
APRIL 24, 2022 – OR&R Director Scott Lundgren was joined by OR&R science and emergency representatives Lisa DiPinto, Aaron Parker, and LT Steven Wall for the biennial Spills Advisory Group hosted by the American Petroleum Institute. This meeting brings together representatives of state and federal government, nongovernment organizations, academia, petroleum industry, and cleanup organizations for information sharing on spill preparedness and response.
APRIL 15, 2022 — The Environmental Sensitivity Index program gave a briefing on Friday, April 15, 2022 for federal and state-level stakeholders in the Great Lakes region. Organized by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the briefing was an opportunity to create awareness among our partners regarding the ESI product, recent updates to ESI data, and changes to the ESI program, as some of them have not worked with the ESI products before.
APRIL 25, 2022 – OR&R’s Emergency Response Division works very closely with our state and federal natural resource trustees in southern Louisiana, often coordinating very closely during oil spills that threaten trustee resources and determining the cleanup strategies that offer the best protection for the environment. Occasionally, ERD receives the very special opportunity to go beyond our oil spill response role and we are invited to assist our partners with restoration of their important parks and refuges.
APRIL 25, 2022 – The latest version of the CAMEO Chemicals hazardous materials database is now available, and it includes key emergency response data updates. The desktop and mobile app platforms have also been updated for the latest operating systems.
APRIL 18, 2022 — On April 6, Christy Kehoe, the California Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) and California Sea Grant Extension Fellow, Tanya Torres, presented at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific’s April 2022 Naturalist Program Meeting.
APRIL 18, 2022 — From March 28-30, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Pacific Island Regional Coordinator, Mark Manuel, participated in the Territorial Climate and Infrastructure Workshop hosted by the Department of Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs (D.O.I.).
APRIL 18, 2022 — Hurricanes and typhoons are powerful storms that cause loss of life and billions of dollars of destruction each year.
APRIL 18, 2022 — NOAA is bidding farewell to longtime chemist, Robert Jones, who recently retired from the Emergency Response Division (ERD) of the Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R).
APRIL 11, 2022 — On April 6, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the inaugural board of directors for the new Marine Debris Foundation.
APRIL 11, 2022 — On Dec. 1, 2021, the day after the official end of the Atlantic hurricane season, the Disaster Preparedness Program kicked off continuous improvement efforts to prepare for the 2022 season.
APRIL 11, 2022 — On March 31, the 7th International Marine Debris Conference (7IMDC) launched a call for abstracts and posters, which is open until Friday, April 29, 2022. The 7IMDC is scheduled to take place from Sept. 18-23, 2022 in Busan, Republic of Korea.
APRIL 4, 2022 – On March 24, the Marine Debris Program's Monitoring Coordinator Hillary Burgess presented virtually at a "Workshop on Capacity Building on Marine Debris Monitoring by Using Innovative Technologies in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Region" hosted by the APEC Oceans and Fisheries Working Group and the Ocean Affairs Council of Chinese Taipei.
APRIL 4, 2022 — U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Mobile recently completed the assessment operations for the WWII Liberty ship, Thomas Heyward, located in about 79 feet (24 meters) of water, four miles south of the Okaloosa Island Fishing Pier just north of the Pensacola-Panama City shipping lane. The vessel was intentionally sunk on April 14, 1977 off of Destin, Florida as an artificial reef structure.
APRIL 4, 2022 – Staff from the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) attended and gave presentations at the virtual 2022 Ocean Sciences Meeting, co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union, the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, and The Oceanography Society, held Feb 28 - March 4.
March 2022
MARCH 28, 2022 — On Thursday, March 24, the Office of Response and Restoration hosted NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad, at two project sites in northern New Jersey.