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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.
March 2021
March 22, 2021 — As federal trustees for natural resources, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are initiating studies to assess natural resource injuries related to the release of hazardous substances from or near the Diamond Alkali Superfund site. The site, centered in Newark, New Jersey, includes the Lower Passaic River, Newark Bay, and other areas.
March 22, 2021 — On March 11, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s (MDP) Pacific Island Regional Coordinator Mark Manuel, participated as a panelist in the 2011 Japan Earthquake and its Tsunami: A 10-Year Remembrance Special Event for Internal NOAA staff in the Pacific Islands Region.
March 15, 2021 — Each year, the Disaster Preparedness Program leads the National Ocean Service Incident Management Team through a review of the previous hurricane season with respect to our personnel, missions, and infrastructure. The process helps NOS learn from the previous year and plan for the next. These lessons learned are collected into an After Action Report and include a plan for improvement.
March 15, 2021 — Scientists from OR&R worked with partners to develop and field test the drifting exposure and effects assessment ring (DEEAR), an in situ bioassay system designed to assess the toxicity of oil spills to aquatic organisms. The DEEAR unit is a drifter drogue with a GPS float that has a bioassay system suspended inside it, where organisms contained in chambers are exposed to ambient water. The unit also contains an array of water quality sensors, a fluorometer, and polyethylene passive sampling devices to characterize the oil exposure.
March 15, 2021 — California-based sustainable textiles consultancy, Materevolve, and the Marine Debris Program partnered to host an engaging workshop entitled “California Microfiber Workshop: Science, Innovation & Connection,” on Nov. 17, 2020.
March 15, 2021 — On March 2, Scott Lundgren, Director of the Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R), provided congratulatory remarks during the plenary kick-off of the 2021 Hawai‘i Marine Debris Action Plan workshop.
March 15, 2021 — Starting on March 1, OR&R’s Emergency Response Division participated virtually in six National Advisory Meetings on the current state of knowledge on dispersants in Canadian waters. Dispersant use in Canada is currently very restricted. The review sessions focused on the potential ecological impacts and trade-offs associated with chemical dispersants.
March 8, 2021 — On February 25, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), a partner of the NOAA Marine Debris Program, announced the 2021 Request for Proposals for the Fishing for Energy Partnership.
March 8, 2021 — The NOAA Office of Response and Restoration’s Disaster Preparedness Program has partnered with the University of Florida Center for Coastal Solutions, the National Science Foundation, and other partners to host the Shared Operational Research Logistics in the Nearshore Environment, SHORELINE 21 workshop on April 26-27 from 9am-5pm ET.
March 8, 2021 — On February 23, the Marine Debris Program Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinator Christy Kehoe participated in a workshop to update Virginia's Marine Debris Reduction Plan.
March 8, 2021 — Effective March 1, William (Willie) Whitmore is the new Northeast Region Scientific Support Coordinator/Regional Preparedness Coordinator (SSC/RPC). Willie covers planning and response to spills from the Canadian border to New York, and supports USCG District One and USCG Sectors Northern New England, Boston, Southeast New England, Long Island, and New York.
March 8, 2021 — At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NOAA Homeland Security Program Office (HSPO) stood up an After Action Reporting/Lessons Learned Unit led by Katie Krushinski and Charles Grisafi from the Office of Response and Restoration’s Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP).
February 2021
March 1, 2021 — On February 24-25, Marine Debris Program (MDP) staff served on the U.S. delegation to the Sixteenth Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Oceans and Fisheries Working Group (OFWG) meeting, held virtually by the Government of New Zealand.
March 1, 2021 — On Feb. 22, at approximately 1:45 p.m., a tanker truck carrying approximately 6,500-gallons of used cooking oil crashed in the median of Route 17 in Essex County, Virginia.
March 1, 2021 — From February 9-23, a virtual international spill response exercise was held to practice how Arctic Council nations would request and receive emergency international support. Support could include aircraft, vessels, response equipment, and personnel.
March 1, 2021 — On February 17, the Marine Debris Program Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinators Demi Fox and Christy Kehoe participated in the first virtual workshop to create the Long Island Sound Marine Debris Action Plan (MDAP).
March 1, 2021 — On February 18 and 19, Marine Debris Program representative Andrew Mason (Pacific Northwest Regional Coordinator) attended a virtual workshop comprised of partners from across Oregon.
March 1, 2021 — On Monday, February 22, Scott Lundgren, Director of OR&R, had a one-on-one briefing with Washington D.C. and district staff from the office of Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
February 22, 2021 — With support from NOAA’S Southeast and Caribbean Regional Collaboration Team (SECART), The NOAA Office of Response and Restoration’s Disaster Preparedness Program and Marine Debris Program are co-hosting a North Carolina Aquaculture Gear Management and Storm Preparedness workshop.
February 22, 2021 — NOAA and the Natural Resource Trustees for the Hudson River PCBs Superfund Site in New York have released a Remedial Injury Determination Report.
February 22, 2021 — The Marine Debris Program (MDP) attended and presented at the bi-annual Arctic Council working group meetings on assembling an international action plan for marine litter in the Arctic. Peter Murphy, the MDP Alaska Coordinator, gave a presentation on proposed projects for initial action under the plan.
February 22, 2021 — On the Feb. 18 episode of You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know, we dove into the life of a veterinarian for oiled wildlife. Dr. Michael Ziccardi of UC Davis discussed how far we have come in giving the oiled wildlife in a response a chance to survive.
February 22, 2021 — On February 18, Nancy Wallace and Hillary Burgess of the Marine Debris Program (MDP) presented to the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) ad hoc committee on the United States Contributions to Global Ocean Plastic Waste.
February 22, 2021 — OR&R staff co-authored a recent paper in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, Responder Needs Addressed by Arctic Maritime Oil Spill Modeling. This paper is part of a larger project, “Oil Spill Modeling for Improved Response to Arctic Maritime Spills” funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s Arctic Domain Awareness Center and facilitated by the University of New Hampshire’s Coastal Response Research Center.
February 22, 2021 — Early on February 18, 2021, the USCG notified the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) for the region of a major vessel fire in the Hylebos Waterway in Tacoma, Washington. A fire had broken out shortly before midnight aboard the 233-foot Aleutian Falcon at Pier 25 in the Port of Tacoma.
February 15, 2021 — On February 1, the NOAA Marine Debris Program and the U.S. State Department secured project funding from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) for a project that will be led by the Ocean Conservancy's Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI).
February 15, 2021 — On February 10, the National Ocean Service (NOS) Incident Management Team (IMT) held its monthly meeting.
February 15, 2021 — In January, the Marine Debris Program welcomed two new members to the Communications Team.
February 15, 2021 — On February 12, 2021, the Advisory Board for the Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI) in Cordova, Alaska, held its winter meeting virtually. OR&R’s Doug Helton is the Federal Chair of OSRI which was established by Congress in response to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
February 8, 2021 — After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, field teams collected tens of thousands of samples to analyze for oil constituents as part of a natural resource damage assessment. Care was exercised to avoid cross-contamination by cleaning equipment between samples.