Training for Bay Area Responders During a Pandemic

April 26, 2021—In March and early April, OR&R’s Emergency Response Division provided Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) training in a hybrid (virtual and field) learning environment to spill responders in the San Francisco Bay area.

A screenshot of a video meeting.
Virtual SCAT class photo of most instructors & students (w/names obscured).

Normally NOAA provides this training to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific Strike Team every March/April, but the 2020 face-to-face class was cancelled due to Covid-19. The class has since been revamped to include three days of online training with remote instructors from South Carolina, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, and California (March 15-18) and one physically-distanced day of local, outdoor, small group field activities (either April 5 or April 8). 

The class was limited to local Coast Guard and state personnel with the aim of building skills and experience to properly identify sensitive shoreline habitats, document the nature and extent of shoreline oiling, provide input on cleanup priorities and recommend cleanup strategies during an oil spill. Trainees included members from local Coast Guard field units (Pacific Strike Team, Sector San Francisco) as well as representatives from California’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response, and NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration. The final day of field training was conducted in small groups at local shoreline parks.

For more information, contact Jordan.Stout@noaa.gov.

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Last updated Tuesday, November 8, 2022 1:44pm PST