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Eastern Pacific Fishing Nations Fail to Conserve Tuna
NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration
Poised to Respond as Hurricane Season Starts
July 2, 2008
With
the arrival of hurricane season, NOAA’s
Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) is prepared
to respond quickly to hazardous material spill incidents resulting
from severe storm events. OR&R scientists work with federal,
state and local agencies to provide scientific support and
assistance before, during and after hurricanes strike.
“NOAA,
through the Office of Response and Restoration, is part of
the multi-agency response team providing oil spill trajectories
and environmental data so that quick decisions can be made
on where to collect oil and what measures can be taken to
protect critical environmental resources” says Dave
Westerholm, director of NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration.
“The federal and state on-scene coordinators rely on
NOAA’s ability to provide accurate and timely on-scene
scientific support, overflights, meteorological data and modeling.”
Located
around the country, OR&R’s Scientific Support Coordinators
work other divisions within NOAA, U.S. Coast Guard and other
response organizations by providing on scene coordination
and scientific support. The NOAA scientific team assists with
spill response, information management, search and rescue
missions, vessel groundings, lost or sunken oil platforms,
releases from coastal industrial facilities, and other impacts
from hurricanes.
OR&R
also addresses longer-term recovery efforts including assessment
and removal of hazardous and non-hazardous marine debris,
natural resource damage assessment, and restoration of coastal
habitats.
“It
is important to understand that as a natural resource trustee,
NOAA has the added responsibility of assessing any coastal
oil or hazardous material impact and developing an appropriate
restoration strategy for that area,” adds Westerholm.
“Assessment and restoration extend well beyond the initial
response and cleanup, and often involves all the response
agencies and impacted communities.”
 During
the 2005 hurricane season, NOAA OR&R staff responded to
multiple storms and staffed nine command posts in four different
states. One of these storms was Hurricane Katrina.
Even before Hurricane Katrina hit land, OR&R was preparing
for its impact, providing critical infrastructure assessments,
discussing possible points of impact, and coordinating critical
personnel in the region.
OR&R
performed overflights to evaluate reports of numerous oil
spills and vessel sinkings and provided environmental review
to the U.S. Coast Guard to address more than 3,000 stranded
or sunken vessels. OR&R is still working today to identify
and develop abatement strategies for marine debris that was
moved to the coastal waters from this hurricane.
The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency
of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing
economic security and national safety through the prediction
and research of weather and climate-related events and information
service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental
stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources.
Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System
of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal
partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission
to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated
as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
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