What was possibly the worst maritime oil spill in history began one year ago in a poorly drilled well deep in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion killed 11 workers and sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, causing a leak that spewed 206 million barrels of oil before it was capped, 87 days later. A [...]
NOAA Fisheries and the National Fish Habitat Board recently announced the release of Through a Fish’s Eye: The Status of Fish Habitats in the United States 2010. Through a Fish’s Eyes provides an important information on the challeneges and opportunities facing fish and their habitats. The report examines human effects on fish habitats throughout the United [...]
Today is the 35th anniversary of the Magnuson-Stevens Act! It began in 1976 as a way to provide for the conservation and sustainable management of fisheries. To read thoughts about this special day from Eric C. Schwaab, NOAA’s Assistant Administrator for Fisheries click here. To learn more about the act check out NOAA’s website. Copyright © 2011 by [...]
On February 2, NOAA reopened 4,213 square miles of Gulf of Mexico federal waters off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to royal red shrimping. This area was previously closed to this kind of deep water fishing on November 24, 2010 after a commercial shrimper found tar balls in his net. The tar balls [...]
Yesterday, NOAA released a draft management plan and environmental assessment for the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary for public review and comment. The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary was designated in 1994 and spans 3,310 square miles off the coast of the Olympic Peninsula. The sanctuary protects an important upwelling zone that is home to many [...]
This week, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) opened its 62nd Annual Meeting in Agadir, Morocco, and will vote on the future of the whaling moratorium [...]
The University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science has launched a new “Oil Spill” web page http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/oil-spill/ designed to share the science being conducted at the Rosenstiel School that is relevant to the issues emerging from the incident on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. Designed for use by teachers, students and [...]
Just recently the United Kingdom established the world’s largest marine reserve. The reserve is a 210,000 square mile area (545,000 square kilometers) in the Indian Ocean encompassing the Chagos Islands. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that this reserve “doubles the global coverage of the world’s oceans under protection,” and says that its creation is “a major step [...]
In a report released on March 15, NOAA announced that new advances in genetic testing have allowed scientists to determine the origin of the Chinook salmon that are consumed by a group of endangered killer whales in the inland waters of Washington and British Columbia. This group of killer whales, known to scientists as the Southern Resident [...]
We’ve all seen the “dolphin-safe” labels on the tuna products we buy, but how do we know if that tuna was actually caught in a dolphin-safe way? NOAA Fisheries Service’s Sustainable Fisheries Division operates the Tuna Tracking and Verification Program (TTVP) designed to determine the truthfulness of the “dolphin-safe” labels on tuna products. This year, [...]
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