research

To answer the question “How does pollution impact the ocean and what can we do about it?” NOAA experts often need to conduct research that advances our knowledge of marine pollution science. This blog highlights 12 scientific articles about research advancing pollution response and assessment published in Fiscal Year 2021.

It is true that a sports car represents the apex of transportation engineering, but that sometimes a horse is the right tool for the job. New ideas come from new minds. For the past several years, oil spill response experts from NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration have been working with undergraduates in the environmental engineering program at the University of New Hampshire to examine simple answers to a complex problem.

During Whale Week (Feb. 10-14), NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration is taking a closer look at the different pollutants affecting whales, and what OR&R and our partners are doing to help. In this guest blog by former NOAA Ocean Acoustics Program Director Brandon Southall, learn more about the vital role sound plays for whales and other marine life.

NOV. 22, 2018 — With Thanksgiving Day began the tradition of taking a moment to think about all the things you’re thankful for — from the past year, your entire life, or maybe even just on that one day. In homes and classrooms across the country, families pick just one to put on a paper turkey of their own making and they reflect on it as they sit down together for a feast of good food and good company.

Mote Marine Laboratory was instrumental in the sea turtle rescue efforts during Deepwater Horizon and in honor of World Sea Turtle Day, June 16, Mote is excited to share some of the other work they do with sea turtles through their Sea Turtle Conservation & Research Program. Find out more about Mote’s work to monitor and protect nesting activity in southwest Florida — a hotspot for loggerhead sea turtles — in this day-in-the-life blog by Mote Senior Biologist Melissa Bernhard.

On April 22, 2018, a team of people from a diverse suite of organizations from within and outside of NOAA began packing and loading gear, trailering and cleaning boats, and wrapping up preliminary paperwork. Made up of field biologists, toxicologists, injury assessment specialists, data managers, and field technicians, the team had just completed a week in the field as part of a major study to help determine the impacts to Endangered Species Act-listed juvenile Chinook salmon from exposure to contaminants as they out-migrate through the Portland Harbor Superfund site via the Willamette River.