Posts tagged with

U.S. Coast Guard

Celebrating the Birth of a Long-Standing Partnership: Happy 228th to Our Friends at the Coast Guard!

Posted Fri, 08/03/2018 - 14:14

As the U.S. Coast Guard prepares to celebrate its 228th birthday, we’d like to show our appreciation to them for all their hard work in helping us fight the threat of marine pollution.

The U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA have a long history of collaboration. While the U.S. Coast Guard continues ahead on a journey to keep our coastal waters clean of marine pollution, NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration is right by their side to provide the scientific support to help them do it.

10 Years Later: Restoring Injured Natural Resources after Cosco Busan

Posted Mon, 11/06/2017 - 22:31
By Alyssa Gray, NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration

This is the last in a week-long series of blogs in remembrance of the Cosco Busan oil spill that happened a decade ago on Nov. 7, 2007. This piece focuses on the continued restoration efforts funded by the $44.4 million settlement and takes a closer look at two species in particular — eelgrass and rockweed.

Solving the Case of the Mystery Sheen

Posted Mon, 08/21/2017 - 18:19
By Jordan Stout, NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator

In early March 2017, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was returning to its home base when the aircrew spotted a silvery sheen in the water about 35 miles west of San Diego, California.

I imagine the conversation among the crew went something like this:

Hey, that looks like it might be oil…

Keeping the Oil Pollution Act Updated

Posted Thu, 08/17/2017 - 15:14
By Doug Helton

On Aug. 18, 1990, President H.W. Bush signed the Oil Pollution Act.  The act gave NOAA and other agencies improved authorities for spill prevention, response, and restoration in the nation’s navigable waters and shorelines.

The act ensured those responsible for an oil spill must cleanup and restore the environment, and compensate the public for its lost uses—like beach and recreational fishery closures—from the time of the incident until those natural resources fully recover.

Polar Bears and Response Drills in Alaska

Posted Tue, 08/15/2017 - 15:36

How do you handle a polar bear covered in oil?  That was just one aspect of the annual Mutual Aid Deployment exercise last month on Alaska’s North Slope oil field.

Staff members from our Emergency Response Division and the Assessment and Restoration Division as well as other NOAA offices participated in the three-day exercise. Each year government agencies, oil companies, and oil spill removal organizations in the region work together to respond to a simulated oil spill in Alaska.