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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 2021
SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 ─ After much planning, preparation, and even a postponement due to Hurricane Ida, the Office of Response and Restoration held a pilot virtual Southeast Resource Advisor Training. So what is a Resource Advisor anyhow?
SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 ─ On September 13, the NOAA Marine Debris Program announced the FY 2022 notice of funding opportunity for Marine Debris Prevention projects. NOAA will fund prevention projects that actively engage and educate a target audience (such as students, teachers, industries, etc.) in hands-on programs designed to raise awareness, reduce barriers to marine debris prevention, and encourage and support changes in behaviors to ensure long-term prevention of marine debris.
SEPT. 13, 2021 — This week the Assessment and Restoration Division’s Dr. Bryand Duke was published as part of a team of scientists in the Journal of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Their research examined the impacts of Monterey crude oil during the 2015 Refugio Beach spill (Santa Barbara County, California).
SEPT. 13, 2021 — On Sept. 1, 2021 the Department of Justice announced that a consent decree valued at $2.1 million was finalized to restore natural resources damaged during the Bayport Channel oil spill.
SEPT. 13, 2021 — On Sept. 29, the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee (IMDCC) will hold a virtual public meeting. This meeting will include presentations on the Fiscal Year 2021 achievements and Fiscal Year 2022 planned activities of the participating agencies.
SEPT. 13, 2021 — On Sept. 9, the NOAA Marine Debris Program announced the 25 recipients of our 2021 Removal, Research, and North America Marine Debris Prevention and Removal Grant awards totaling approximately $7.3 million in federal funds.
SEPT. 13, 2021 — On Sept. 1, the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) wrapped-up a month of partner-led virtual workgroup meetings to discuss the California Ocean Litter Strategy. The meetings brought together over 75 partners across the state and included a diverse set of sectors including state agencies, nonprofits, private sector, and academia.
SEPT. 13, 2021 — On Sept. 7, the Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) welcomed six new undergraduate interns from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES): Tnaisha Addison, Abisola Ajayi, Sophia Anokam, Sumayyah Cravens, Semaj Fielding, and Jasmine Thompson.
SEPT. 13, 2021 — OR&R's NOAA scientific support coordinator for Alaska participated in the 43rd Joint Planning Group Meeting and Exercise held under the Joint Contingency Plan of the Russian Federation and the United States of America in Combating Pollution on the Bering Sea and Chukchi Seas (Joint Contingency Plan or ‘JCP’).
August 2021
AUGUST 30, 2021 — On August 17 - 18, a number of OR&R staff participated in the CLEAN PACIFIC 2021 conference, held both virtually and in-person in Renton, Washington.
AUGUST 30, 2021 ─ On August 10 and 11, representatives from several NOAA Line Offices met to discuss agency roles, responsibilities, and opportunities for enhancing coordination and support delivery in disaster recovery. The workshop was developed by the Disaster Preparedness Program and facilitated by the University of New Hampshire’s Coastal Resources Research Center.
AUGUST 30, 2021 ─ Prior to Tropical Storm/Hurricane Henri making landfall on August 22, 2021, FEMA gave a mission assignment to William Whitmore, the Disaster Preparedness Program’s Regional Preparedness Coordinator based out of Gloucester, Massachsetts.
AUGUST 30, 2021 ─ Forty-five years ago, on December 15, 1976, the tanker Argo Merchant ran aground near Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. The ship later broke up, spilling 7.6 million gallons of #6 Fuel Oil.
On August 24, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with support from the non-profit Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project (PMDP), launched a 30-day mission to remove marine debris from the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
AUGUST 30, 2021 ─ On August 18, Marine Debris Division staff provided a presentation on the Division’s work and the United States Government’s approach to addressing marine debris to a group of officials from twelve countries.
Great Lakes Scientific Support Coordinator Participates in U.S./Canada Equipment Deployment Exercise
AUGUST 23, 2021 ─ On August 18, United States Coast Guard Sector Detroit executed a field operation to validate existing booming plans in the St. Clair River. This evolution is to meet objectives outlined in the Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) scenario in which a fictitious tanker vessel collides with hard bottom and releases 5,000 barrels of fuel oil into the St. Clair River.
AUGUST 23, 2021 ─ The eleventh annual Environmental Data Management Workshop organized by NOAA took place the week of the August 16. The virtual meeting covered topics that included all facets of data management from collection through archiving.
AUGUST 23, 2021 ─ On August 16-17, Marine Debris Division (MDD) staff served on the U.S. delegation to the Seventeenth Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Oceans and Fisheries Working Group (OFWG) meeting.
AUGUST 23, 2021 ─ On August 19, NOAA Marine Debris Division (MDD) partner, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), announced eight grants totaling $412,000 through the Fishing for Energy partnership to support activities in California, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Oregon to reduce the amount of derelict fishing gear in the marine environment.
AUGUST 23, 2021 ─ On August 11 and 18, the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP), in partnership with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, supported two half-day training sessions on applying for grants for the Mid-Atlantic Marine Debris Action Plan community and regional stakeholders.
AUGUST 23, 2021 ─ The solicitation of nominations for the Marine Debris Foundation Board of Directors has been reopened. The Save Our Seas 2.0 Act of 2020 established the Marine Debris Foundation (Foundation) as a charitable and nonprofit organization to support the efforts of NOAA and other entities to address marine debris and directed the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere to appoint the Foundation’s
AUGUST 16, 2021 ─ On Saturday, August 7, the Marine Debris Program’s Education Specialist, Alexandria Brake, led a workshop at the Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center (CELC) Network Virtual Youth Summit. The CELC Network is a consortium of 25 aquariums and marine science education centers located in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, which is coordinated by NOAA’s Office of Education.
AUGUST 16, 2021 ─ The week of August 9, OR&R held our third week long virtual Science of Chemical Releases (SOCR) Class during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Classes were held live on-line with 40 students from multiple federal and state agencies and a few non-profit response consortiums attending from across the U.S. from Hawaii to Virginia and international participants from Canada, Panama, and England.
AUGUST 16, 2021 ─ OR&R's Emergency Response Division is supporting the USCG response for the 138’ F/V St. Patrick, a scallop boat that sank in Kodiak in 1989 but recently began leaking oil. The response and investigation is ongoing and at this point, it’s unknown how much fuel has leaked or is left on board.
AUGUST 16, 2021 ─ On August 5, 2021, Sarah Latshaw, Southeast Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program, was a guest presenter during the Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council (Council) meeting.
AUGUST 16, 2021 ─ Contaminant loads in the fish will be evaluated through chemical analysis and their otoliths will be examined to quantify recent growth rates. Beach seines using a NOAA research vessel and pulled to shore by hand to sort through each catch.
AUGUST 9, 2021 ─ On August 2, the NOAA Marine Debris Program announced the FY 2022 notice of funding opportunity for Marine Debris Removal projects. NOAA will fund removal projects that create long-term, quantifiable ecological habitat improvements to NOAA trust resources.
AUGUST 9, 2021 ─ On July 29, 2021, federal co-trustees, NOAA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the Final Early Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment that calls for building a 5-acre park along the Lower Passaic River in East Newark, New Jersey.
AUGUST 9, 2021 ─ On July 26, the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) launched a new webpage to share marine debris educational resources, organized for easy access by four key audiences: Educators, Students, Kids and Families, and Adults and Professionals.
AUGUST 9, 2021 ─ On August 5, 2021, OR&R Director Scott Lundgren represented NOAA alongside other senior agency representatives from the 15 Departments and Agencies participating in the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (external pdf factsheet). Senior leaders from the Department of the Interior and EPA convened this meeting to build relationships and connections, provide leadership-level support for the partnership, and discuss future actions for the program as