Earth Day dates back to 1970, when Senator Gaylord Nelson implemented it as a day to recognize the need for environmental protection. That same year in December, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency. NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration gained its first recognition in environmental issues six years later when the Argo Merchant tanker vessel grounded near Nantucket Shoals in Massachusetts, spilling nearly 8 million gallons of oil ... 

Eight years ago today, on April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Macondo oil well drilling platform tragically killed 11 workers, and started the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history, releasing millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

With springtime comes a string of rainy days and an increased risk of driving accidents, but did you know that the first rain after a dry spell is actually the most dangerous?

If not, that’s okay, neither did Daniel Eisenberg, post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

Marine debris and plastic pollution first appeared in scientific literature in the 1970s, and have since become highly published topics. Debris can be found in a variety of marine environments — from coasts and remote beaches, to Arctic and Antarctic regions — throughout the open ocean and all the way down to the deepest depths of the sea floor.

Every month our 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 possible effects on wildlife and fisheries, and estimates on how long the oil may stay in the environment.

This is the sixth in a 12-part monthly series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). This month’s profile is on Assessment and Restoration Division Northwest and Great Lakes Branch Chief Amy Merten.

When disaster strikes, it’s important to know what locations and infrastructure may be at risk and what resources are available. For times such as this, OR&R’s mapping tool, MARPLOT^®, can help mitigate disaster.

With the ability to customize maps and their features, MARPLOT appeals to users like Greg Moser, emergency management coordinator for Westminster, Colorado, who use mapping tools to do all-hazards community risk assessment.

Our first day of surveying intertidal habitats on the Farallon Islands was cold and wet, with gusty winds practically blowing us over while we set out our sampling plots. The Farallones, 29 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, are a desolate cluster of seven small rocky outcrops sometimes dubbed the “Devil’s Teeth,” but other times referred to as “California’s Galapagos.” The jagged rocks are barely visible over the western horizon from the Golden Gate, but on a clear day can be seen from the more northerly Point Bonita lighthouse as gray spikes poking through an otherwise flat and expansive sea surface.