Federal and local agency workers help clean up the beaches affected by the Texas City "Y" oil spill, which resulted from a collision between a bulk carrier and a barge in the Houston Ship Channel.

NOAA uses coral nurseries to help corals recover after traumatic events, such as a ship grounding. Hung on a tree structure, the staghorn coral shown here will have a better chance of surviving and being transplanted back onto a reef.

Migratory Alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) in a fish run in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

The Duwamish River is truly an urban resource that supports wide-range uses, including: industry, boating, fishing, residential, and just relaxing. Due to industrial and stormwater pollution, the lower 5.5 miles of the river was placed on the EPA's Superfund site list in 2001. 

The Lower Duwamish River in Seattle remains a heavily used waterway for barges, like this one pictured, and other industrial traffic. Efforts to cleanup and restore the river, for its many different uses, are underway.

NOAA expert inspecting sediment at the Richmond Terminal 4 oil spill site in California.

Coral restoration at the T/V Margara ship grounding site. Here the diver is placing cement around the base of a soft coral that is being reattached. 

The M/T Athos I hit several submerged objects while preparing to dock at a refinery. Oil from the ruptured tanker spread 115 miles downriver, impacting 280 miles of shoreline in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware with wide ranging environmental, economic, and recreational impacts. Restoration projects have included oyster reef construction, dam removal and habitat restoration, and improved recreational opportunities.

A pipeline ruptured underground at an electric generating facility and spilled into a tributary of the Patuxent River. The spill oiled over 80 acres of wetlands and shoreline, killing more than 1,000 birds and animals and the loss of an estimated 125,000 recreational river trips. Restoration projects bolstered injured habitats and outdoor recreation infrastructure.

567,000 gallons of #2 fuel oil killed over 700 birds, smothered fish, crabs, and clams, and caused massive losses of salt marsh cordgrass. To date, 111 acres of marsh habitat have been enhanced or restored, and more than 80 acres have been acquired for protection. Here, Exxon Bayway Volunteers in protective rubber waders work with the New York City Parks and Recreation team to replant cordgrass on the shores of Prall's Island.

When the M/V Everreach spilled 12,500 gallons of oil into Cooper River it oiled 30 miles of shoreline and impacted a wide range of habitats. To compensate for the pollution 11 acres of salt marsh were restored at a former golf course site, and a project installing a new fishing pier was selected to increase public access to recreational fisheries.

Koppers Co., Inc. was a wood treatment and fertilizer manufacturing plant that operated from approximately 1940 to 1978. Over time the plant released hazardous substances into the Ashley River, groundwater, and surrounding wetlands. This is the proposed site for hydrologic and habitat restoration on Long Branch Creek in Charleston, South Carolina.

Selendang Ayu oil spill damage assessment

Selendang Ayu oil spill damage assessment

Scientists pull in a seine net along a beach near Santa Barbara, California, about a year after the oil spill at Refugio State Beach. They are sampling fish known as surfperch to evaluate any impacts from the oil spill.

Scientists seining salt marsh tidal channel collecting native small fish for injury determination in 2016. A seine, lift net, and minnow traps were used to collect fish adjacent to the marsh for species identification and to measure body size and observe possible abnormalities, both external and internal.

Volunteers plant Switch Grass during the 2010 NOAA Restoration Day event at the NOAA Cooperative Oxford Lab in Oxford, Maryland.

OR&R scientist Sarah Allan collecting baseline sediment samples at the Kitluk River in Alaska. 

A small levee constructed in Pierce Marsh, near Galveston Bay, Texas, in 2016 contains dredged sediments that will restore marsh elevation and improve habitat quality. Image credit: NOAA

Starting in 1947 and for approximately 30 years, manufacturing plants operated by General Electric Company (GE) discharged PCBs into the upper Hudson River, with additional releases of PCBs occurring as well.

As a result of industrial activities along the Duwamish River in Seattle, Washington, NOAA is evaluating possible injuries to the benthic community including flatfish and salmon.

In the wake of the 2010 oil spill on Adak Island, a field team member from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game breaks the ice to prepare a stream for sampling, in this case, for electrofishing. Field teams also were setting small fish traps, which do not require breaking up the ice like this.

Scientists collect fiddler crabs on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, in 2008 as part of a study conducted by NOAA to characterize chemical concentrations of hazardous substances in both land and fiddler crabs. (NOAA)

Emergent wetland plants, such as great burreed, pickerelweed and white pond lily, grow along the Griffin Island Causeway (N.Y.) in 2004. These plants comprise the fringing riverine wetlands of the upper freshwater Hudson River, which includes the backwater area behind Griffin Island. (NOAA)

Scientists assess damage to the environment after a diesel fuel spill in the Aleutian Islands in 2010. (NOAA)

Downstream view over the McLane Dam at the Fletcher Superfund Site in Milford, N.H. Here, water was being drawn down behind the McLane Dam in order to take samples from the Souhegan River. River sediment data will help determine the movement of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) downstream from the waste site (a former paint manufacturing facility) and the feasibility of dam removal. (NOAA)

After the 2000 pipeline leak of oil from the Chalk Point PEPCO facility into Swanson Creek in Maryland, a scientist samples sediment to determine the impact on bottom-dwelling creatures. (NOAA)