NOAA News Releases

The latest news releases from NOAA - the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOAA Cautions Public to Avoid Seal Pups on California Beaches - January 31, 2008

NOAAs Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary advises beachgoers against interacting with any seal pups they may find on the beach. Newborn harbor seal pups, born in late winter and spring, could suffer permanent harm if someone not licensed in marine mammal rescue were to move them.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080131_sealpups.html

Veteran Research Pilot to Head NOAAs Aviation Weather Center - January 30, 2008

NOAA has named Robert Maxson director of the Aviation Weather Center in Kansas City, the nations primary source of weather information for domestic and international flights. Maxson will leave his post as a research pilot with the National Science Foundation in Boulder, Colo. and begin his new duties at NOAA on Feb. 4.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080130_maxson.html

Volunteers Count Whales in NOAAs Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary - January 28, 2008

More than 600 volunteers gathered data from the shores of Oahu, Kauai, the Big Island, and Kahoolawe for Saturdays annual Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Ocean Count on Jan. 26.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080128_sanctuary.html

NOAAs Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Extends Deadline for Applications for Advisory Council - January 28, 2008

NOAAs Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary has extended the deadline to Feb. 10 for applications for the tourism alternate and Chumash Community member and alternate positions on its advisory council.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080128_channel.html

Veteran Marine Safety Expert to Head NOAA Office of Response and Restoration - January 22, 2008

David Westerholm, former chief of the U.S. Coast Guards Office of Response, has been named the new director of NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080122_westerholm.html

NOAA Administrator Expresses Concern over Satellite Contractor Delay - January 22, 2008

NOAAs top official today expressed concern that a contractors slow development of a critical new sensor will delay its delivery for a scheduled launch of a precursor mission for the National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080122_npoess.html

NOAA Funds $3.8 Million, Five-Year Project to Study, Manage Saginaw Bay Ecosystem - January 18, 2008

NOAA has awarded a regional consortium of Great Lakes area universities and research organizations $760,000 for the first year of a five-year, $3.8 million pilot project to develop a new approach to analyzing and managing the cumulative effects of climate change, land use, invasive species, and other environmental stressors on Saginaw Bay and its surrounding ecosystem.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080118_saginawbay.html

Former Grays Reef Sanctuary Research Vessel Has Second Life as Home to Sea Creatures - January 17, 2008

A former Grays Reef National Marine Sanctuary research ship sunk last year off the Georgia coast as an artificial reef is now home to a diverse array of marine fish and invertebrates after only four months on the bottom, according to NOAA scientists.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080117_grayreef.html

NOAA Considers Ways to Handle Sea Lions That Threaten Protected Salmon - January 17, 2008

NOAAs Fisheries Service is asking for public comment as it considers four alternatives to deter California sea lions from eating imperiled salmon and steelhead that congregate below the Bonneville Dam on the lower Columbia River as they head upriver to spawn.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080117_sealion.html

Critically Endangered Porpoise is Focus of New Research Report - January 17, 2008

An international research team, including biologists from NOAAs Fisheries Service, reported in the scientific journal Conservation Biology, that the estimated population of vaquita, a porpoise found in the Gulf of California, is likely two years away from reaching such low levels that their rate to extinction will increase and possibly be irreversible.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080116_vaquita.html