Over the past year, NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration provided scientific support for six international spill responses. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NOAA scientists were not able to go on scene; however, our improved capabilities to provide support ensured that our remote service continued to be effective. Among the products OR&R provided were oil fate and trajectory analyses, oil and debris cleanup recommendations, advice on marine mammal and sea turtle impacts, and satellite imagery.

When pollution harms American waterways, it’s not enough to simply clean up the contamination. Restoring the environment means implementing projects that help habitats, wildlife, and coastal communities recover quickly and completely. In fiscal year 2021, NOAA helped to recover over $130 million to restore 10 polluted waterways after oil spills and industrial pollution. NOAA and partners worked to evaluate the impacts of pollution and reach legal agreements with those responsible for pollution to fund restoration.

The Office of Response and Restoration’s Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) and the University of New Hampshire’s Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) recently hosted the first cross-NOAA workshop on Disaster Recovery Support. Find out how this workshop supports our disaster recovery efforts in this blog.

On Wednesday, September 22, the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center’s Marine Debris Project team, joined by the non-profit Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project, marked the completion of their marine debris removal mission in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (monument). The team arrived at Pearl Harbor aboard the charter vessel IMUA along with the nearly 124,000 pounds of marine debris removed during the 30-day mission.

In FY21, OR&R made significant updates to its environmental sensitivity index maps for two critical links in the Great Lakes region—the St. Marys and St. Lawrence rivers.

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.

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 12 incidents in November, including oil discharges, grounded vessels, and other pollution-related incidents.

Imagine this: you are sitting on a beautiful beach enjoying a lovely day, when out of the blue an alarm blasts from your phone and reads “Tsunami warning.” Do you know where you would go and what to do? What if you aren’t in the U.S. and there are no alarms, would you know the signs of an approaching tsunami?