NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration supports exercises throughout the country each year. Many of these exercises are in coordination with or hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard and industry partners to meet preparedness and readiness requirements. These include Coast Guard PREP exercises for oil spill response, industry led exercises, chemical releases, hurricane responses, weapons of mass destruction, biochemical and terrorist scenarios and even international exercises. Our latest support was part of a National Response Team initiative with Panama called Eco Canal to provide coordinated support to the Panama Canal Authority for incidents. 

This feature is part of a monthly series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). In our latest "Minds Behind OR&R," meet Carlie Herring, a research analyst for the NOAA Marine Debris Program.

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 month OR&R responded to 22 incidents in July, including oil discharges, grounded vessels, and other pollution-related incidents.