In the decades that NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration has been providing scientific support for responses to oil and chemical spills, OR&R scientists have developed a trove of specialized tools to help them do their work. Responders today can even spot spills from space with a trajectory tool and a little help from an important partner.

At first glance, the blue surface of the open ocean seems like an empty place. But if you look closely, life teems just beneath the surface. Tiny, transparent fish eggs, larval invertebrates, and other planktonic organisms float and drift at the mercy of wind and ocean currents. 

Every month, OR&R’s Emergency Response Division provides scientific expertise and services to the U.S. Coast Guard on everything from running oil spill trajectories to model where the spill may spread, to identifying possible effects on wildlife and fisheries and estimates on how long the oil may stay in the environment. We also get requests to track and model other floating objects.

So far this year, OR&R has provided support to 98 incidents. In July, OR&R provided response support to 21 incidents, including 11 new incidents in seven states and one territory (the U.S. Virgin Islands). Staff prepared 147 new incident reports and documents, including nine fate and trajectory analyses. Cumulatively, these incidents posed an approximate risk of over 66,000 gallons of oils and 77,000 metric tons of chemicals⁠. 
 

So far this year, OR&R has provided support to 87 incidents. In June, OR&R provided response support to 30 incidents, including 22 new incidents in seven states and two foreign countries (Canada and Aruba). The new incidents included 19 actual or potential oil spills, one mystery spill, one grounded deep-sea semi-submersible oil rig with contaminated ballast water, and one whale carcass. Staff prepared 182 new incident reports and documents, including 13 fate and trajectory analyses.