Marine Debris

Valentine's Day is a time to express love of all kinds, and nobody deserves a Valentine more than our ocean.

From providing us with food, oxygen, industry, and recreational opportunities, to hosting a rich diversity of life, the oceans show their love for us every single day. The ocean is a real catch.

So let’s take a break from this love letter to talk about five ways we show our love for the ocean here at NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration.

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Sept. 25, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross presented NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration with the Department of Commerce Gold Medal for leadership in the aftermath of the 2017 Atlantic hurricanes during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.

The Department of Commerce recognized OR&R for its ““innovative leadership in responding to coastal threats resulting from three Category 4 hurricanes in under 27 days during the 2017 hurricane season.”

This is the 11th in a 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 featured scientist is Marine Debris Program Great Lakes Regional Coordinator Sarah Lowe.

Imagine you’ve planned a big day at the beach with your family and friends, loaded up the car with supplies, and traveled out to your favorite spot, only to find a beach littered with plastic beverage bottles, stray fishing line, chip bags, cigarette butts, and other debris. Would you stay and play, or be on your way? This is the choice that many face when heading to their local beaches.

For many, the first thing that comes to mind when they think of oil spills is an image of great big oil sheens in the middle of the ocean, tarballs washing up on beaches, and photos of oiled wildlife on the internet. Marine pollution on the whole might also bring to mind an image of sandy beaches littered with plastic bottles and other marine debris — or perhaps even a “garbage island” floating out in open sea.

This is the seventh in a 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 Marine Debris Program Chief Scientist Amy Uhrin.

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 ...