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NOV. 12, 2024 — Over the past year, the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) and the Coastal Response Research Center at the University of New Hampshire partnered with Louisiana Sea Grant to launch a series of resources to assist communities following natural disasters.
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
NOV. 12, 2024 — Staff from the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) Assessment and Restoration Division and Emergency Response Division attended the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) North America annual conference in Fort Worth, Texas from October 20–24, 2024. Attended by more than 1,500 scientists, the conference included 1,088 presentations—21 of which were co-authored by NOAA scientists—across 184 scientific sessions.
NOV. 12, 2024 — The NOAA Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) welcomed four interns from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES): Jalynn Aaron and Kayla Brown, both majoring in psychology, and Mikaela Blackwood and Amari Dupree, both majoring in biology. From this November 2024 through April 2025, interns will remotely support OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division with work on natural resource damage assessment and restoration.
September 2022
SEPT. 19, 2022 — On Sept. 29, 2022, the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee (IMDCC) will hold a virtual public meeting, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET. The public meeting will focus on federal efforts to address abandoned and derelict vessels.
SEPT. 12, 2022 — NOAA has awarded a contract to refresh the Environmental Sensitivity Index maps and data for Lake Ontario. The work has already begun, and will be completed by the end of September 2023.
SEPT. 12, 2022 — On Aug. 31, the NOAA Marine Debris Program 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 across the state and included a diverse set of sectors including state agencies, nonprofits, private organizations, and academia.
SEPT. 12, 2022 — Recently, NOAA Marine Debris Program grants specialist and lead coordinator of the National Ocean Service Zero Waste Team, Amanda Dwyer, received a Business Waste Reduction and Recycling Champion award from Montgomery County, Maryland. She was one of 22 individuals, businesses, and organizations honored from across Montgomery County for outstanding achievement in recycling, waste reduction, and reuse.
SEPT. 12, 2022 — OR&R’s Emergency Response Division participated in an event sponsored by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)—Disaster Response for Oil Spill and Mass Rescue Exchange—held in Port Louis, Mauritius on Aug. 22-26.
August 2022
AUG. 29, 2022 — Last week, OR&R Director Scott Lundgren and Senior Scientist Lisa DiPinto joined the U.S. Coast Guard, NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) Director Deborah Lee and others for the ribbon cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the Great Lakes Oil Spill Center of Expertise (GLCOE).
AUG. 29, 2022 — On Aug. 17-18, 2022, NOAA Marine Debris Program staff served on the United States delegation to the 19th meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Oceans and Fisheries Working Group.
AUG. 29, 2022 — On Aug. 18, scientists from the Coastal Response Research Center at University of New Hampshire hosted Nicole LeBoeuf, National Ocean Service assistant administrator, and Chrissy Hayes after their visit to the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping / Joint Hydrographic Center.
AUG. 22, 2022 — Later this year and in 2023, a cross-divisional team within OR&R will address the science of per- and poly-fluorinated substances (PFAS) in aqueous fire-fighting foams (AFFF).
AUG. 22, 2022 — On Aug. 12, Sam Rauch, NOAA Fisheries Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, spoke on behalf of NOAA at the BASF Corporation’s Groundbreaking for the East Newark Riverfront Park project in East Newark, New Jersey.
AUG. 22, 2022 — On July 26, 2022, OR&R's Disaster Preparedness Program and the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) partnered to exercise the Real-Time Currents and Meteorological Buoys (affectionately known as CURBY).
AUG. 22, 2022 — OR&R staff met with congressional committee staffers from the U.S. House Space, Science, and Technology Committee, as well as a staff member from the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee – Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee at the NOAA Western Regional Center on Aug. 8, 2022.
AUG. 22, 2022 — On Aug. 16, 2022, a new NOAA publication, "Towards a North Pacific long-term monitoring program for ocean plastic pollution: A systematic review and recommendations for shorelines," was published in the journal Environmental Pollution.
AUG. 22, 2022 — One of the primary ways OR&R supports the U.S. Coast Guard during oil spills is by providing trajectories (oil spill transport forecasts) which help in determining where the oil will go so that the appropriate response (cleanup or protection) strategies can be planned for and implemented.
AUG. 22, 2022 — On July 27, 2022, the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested NOAA scientific support for a declared emergency on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands due to impacts on the island’s water supply from high concentrations of sargassum.
AUG. 15, 2022 — On Aug. 3, 2022, NOAA Marine Debris Program Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinator Katie Morgan attended an outreach event in Fenwick Island, Delaware, organized by Delaware Sea Grant.
AUG. 15, 2022 — On Aug. 3-4, 2022, the NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration held the Gulf of Mexico Resource Advisor (RA) Training. The goal of this two-day virtual training was to ensure coastal resource managers understand the role of an RA and have the tools needed to fulfill the role in the field successfully.
AUG. 8, 2022 — On July 20-21, 2022, the Northwest Area Committee (NWAC) hosted an Oiled Shoreline Response Workshop at the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island, Washington. Attendees represented the response community with over forty federal, state, tribal, and industry participants.
AUG. 8, 2022 — On July 28, 2022, NOAA Marine Debris Program Northeast Regional Coordinator Demi Fox attended a Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment meeting in Portland, Maine, to join a presentation on marine debris prevention and removal efforts underway in Canada and the United States.
AUG. 8, 2022 — Two OR&R scientists were recently recognized with a prestigious Department of State Honor Award for their work as part of the National Response Team (NRT) supporting environmental crises in other nations.
July 2022
AUG. 1 — On July 22, 2022, NOAA Marine Debris Program Education Specialist Alexandria Brake and California Sea Grant Marine Debris Extension Fellow Tanya Torres led an impactful workshop for science educators focused on the Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP) at the National Science Teaching Association’s national conference.
AUG. 1, 2022 — The week of July 18, 2022, NOAA Marine Debris Program staff participated in a tour of partner projects being conducted in the greater San Diego area.
AUG. 1, 2022 — Scientists from OR&R have partnered with the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, the Coastal Response Research Center (a partnership between OR&R and the University of New Hampshire), and remote sensing consultants at Water Mapping, LLC to advance our ability to respond to and assess impacts from spills in the Arctic.
AUG. 1, 2022 – For the past few years, the U.S. Department of the Interior has offered the webinar series “Inland Oil Spill for DOI Response” to share pertinent lectures and topics of interest to the DOI spill response community.
AUG. 1, 2022 — Beginning in April 2020, in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, a small team in OR&R’s Emergency Response Division began sharing knowledge in the form of live, virtual lectures on emergency spill response, environmental protection, and related topics.
AUG. 1, 2022 — During the week of July 11, 2022, OR&R’s Emergency Response Division held the first in-person Science of Oil Spill class since 2019, training 41 students from five federal agencies, four state agencies, five international agencies, and four industrial companies at NOAA’s Western Regional Center in Seattle.
AUG. 1, 2022 — This is the first of a new quarterly series on the public use of the CAMEO Suite. Our goal is to tell a more complete story here rather than just the “numbers,” getting into more of what they mean.
AUG. 1, 2022 — The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Sault Sainte Marie and U.S. Oil (a division of U.S. Venture) held a successful field exercise in Rogers City, Michigan on July 19, 2022.
AUG. 1, 2022 — In 2019, a planning committee was formed to schedule class dates, define the class location, and narrow down field sites for NOAA’s Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) class.