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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.
August 2020
AUGUST 10, 2020 — Ken Finkelstein, Regional Resource Coordinator with OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division, recently attended a NOAA congressional round table for the state of Rhode Island.
AUGUST 10, 2020 — On August 4, the Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R), in collaboration with the United States Coast Guard (USCG), hosted a virtual briefing on the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990. The briefing was open to all-interested staff, including relevant Senate and House committees.
AUGUST 10, 2020 — On July 31, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s (MDP) Pacific Island Regional Coordinator, Mark Manuel, participated in the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) “Get into Your Sanctuary” celebration to raise awareness about the value of our national marine sanctuaries as iconic destinations for responsible recreation and stewardship.
AUGUST 10, 2020 — You are on the 16th fairway and having a great round, but the horizon is getting a bit dark. Fortunately, you have a weather app on your fancy smart phone. The red and yellow bands are still a ways in the distance and the thunder is only a low rumble. Someone else’s problem.
AUGUST 10, 2020 — On August 6, Charles Grisafi, Southeast Regional Preparedness Coordinator, represented the NOAA Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) at a South Carolina Hurricane Task Force virtual meeting hosted by the South Carolina Emergency Management Division (SCEMD).
July 2020
AUGUST 3, 2020 — On July 21, the Marine Debris Program (MDP) participated in a National Ocean Service (NOS) career panel for the staff, AmeriCorps Fellows, and other volunteers at the Ocean Discovery Institute (ODI).
AUGUST 3, 2020 — NOAA hosted 44 educators during the 2020 ACCESS STEM program, run by the Washington Alliance for Better Schools (WABS), WABS works with 12 school districts around Puget Sound and recruits teachers to learn about local industries/organizations. These teachers then create science/technology units based on the information they learned during their placements.
AUGUST 3, 2020 — On July 27, the secretariat of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum approved a project submitted jointly by the Marine Debris Program (MDP) and Department of State Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs to help enable governments, researchers, and others to more effectively monitor marine debris.
AUGUST 3, 2020 — Tuesday, August 28, was a historic day in Wilmington Delaware on the Brandywine River. American Shad were documented using a portion of the Delaware River for juvenile production that hasn't been available for centuries.
AUGUST 3, 2020 — On July 22, 2020, Nancy Wallace, Director of the Marine Debris Program (MDP), joined the Department of Energy (DOE) Plastics Upcycling coordination call to present on the activities of the MDP.
AUGUST 3, 2020 — One of the saddest and most rewarding jobs at a major environmental emergency response is that of wildlife rescue, recovery, and rehabilitation. Animals in dire condition are captured, evaluated, treated, rehabilitated and, with luck, released back into the wild.
JULY 27, 2020 — On July 20, 2020, the Marine Debris Program participated in a virtual career night panel held by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Science Consortium for their Discovery Hall Programs 2020 High School Marine Science Class.
JULY 27, 2020 — Disasters often exceed the local, county, and even state capacity to effectively assess impacts and respond to life threatening situations. Aerial surveillance is a critical element to managing an effective response by identifying critical threats and other immediate issues.
JULY 27, 2020 — On TUESDAY TECHNICAL TALKS with the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator this week, Kate Sampson, the Stranding and Entanglement Coordinator for National Marine Fisheries Service Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office perhaps surprised some in the Northeast with the fact that sea turtles ply these northern waters.
JULY 27, 2020 — Those of a particular age remember the 1971 iconic television commercial of a tear rolling down the weathered cheek of a Native American as he looks at litter on the land.
JULY 27, 2020 — On Friday, July 17, the OR&R Disaster Preparedness Program hosted the FEMA Administrator, Pete Gaynor; FEMA Region IV Administrator, Gracia Szczec; Alabama Emergency Management Agency Director, Brian Hastings; and other important partners, at the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center (DRC) in Mobile, Alabama.
JULY 20, 2020 — On July 13, a Marine Debris Program (MDP) partner, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), announced 14 grants totaling $121,700 to prevent the accumulation of derelict fishing gear, or fishing gear that is lost, abandoned, or discarded in the marine environment, in port communities in U.S. coastal waters.
JULY 20, 2020 — On July 16, the Department of State announced that the United States formally joined the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) as a member government of this multi-stakeholder partnership, joining 15 other governments and 85 non-government partners.
JULY 20, 2020 — The Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is the United States' largest offshore oil and gas production area.
JULY 20, 2020 — The week of July 13, NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) Paige Doelling, along with OR&R’s Katie Krushinski and Robb Wright participated in a hurricane preparedness exercise coordinated and planned by the Natural Disaster Operational Workgroup (NDOW).
JULY 20, 2020 — Four out of four experts agreed that climate change is the number one threat to corals around the world.
JULY 20, 2020 — On July 15, the NOAA Marine Debris Program announced the FY 2021 notice of funding opportunity for Marine Debris Removal projects.
JULY 20, 2020 — On July 14 at the TUESDAY TECHNICAL TALKS with the NOAA SSC, responders, planners scientists joined Steve Lehmann, Senior Scientific Support Coordinator in the northeast for another in this weekly series designed to improve response skills and response science awareness.
JULY 13, 2020 — In June, the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) added multilingual educational videos on marine debris in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to the MDP's multimedia resources online.
JULY 13, 2020 — On June 24- 25, the Marine Debris Program along with the California Ocean Protection Council, hosted the bi-annual California Ocean Litter Strategy (OLS) Workshop.
JULY 13, 2020 — This summer, the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) MarineQuest, with the support of a NOAA Marine Debris Prevention Grant, is providing fun, virtual lessons about the impacts of marine debris on turtles for the young or young at heart through their program, Turtle Trash Collectors.
JULY 13, 2020 — After months of preparation, NOAA's Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) held their first-ever National Ocean Service (NOS) Incident Management Team (IMT) 101 Training on Wednesday, July 8.
JULY 13, 2020 — One of the most efficient methods for removing an oil slick from the surface of the water (and one of the most exciting) is by burning it in place or “in-situ burning”. It is a technique that is difficult to master and still holds many challenges for researchers.
JULY 13, 2020 — In June, the NOAA Marine Debris Program and the National Park Service (NPS) finalized a five-year agreement to support the development and installation of outreach and educational displays or exhibits in coastal National Parks.
JULY 13, 2020 — On June 29, the Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) and the University of New Hampshire’s Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) hosted their second virtual Hurricane Preparedness Summit for the National Ocean Service, (NOS) in preparation for the 2020 hurricane season.