White House Aims to Eliminate NOAA Climate Research
of NOAA that would directly threaten the millions of Americans that depend on healthy oceans for their jobs, businesses, and seafood dinners.”Commerce Department officials did not respond to requests for comment.Under the proposal, NOAA would transfer key responsibilities of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for protecting endangered species and marine mammals to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is housed by the Interior Department.NMFS, known as NOAA Fisheries, would also lose funding for species recovery grants, interjurisdictional fisheries grants and habitat conservation
Utility Serving San Juan Islands Proposes to Harness Tidal Power
a maximum generating capacity of approximately 2 megawatts with an annual output of 4.6–5.6 gigawatt hours annually — able to power 400 homes.As part of the permitting process, OPALCO anticipates state and federal interagency engagement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Washington Department of Ecology, the Washington Department of Natural Resources and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.Once the necessary environmental studies have been completed, permitting
NOAA Sued Over Whale Injuries from Drift Gillnets off California
Environmentalists on Thursday sued the agency overseeing U.S. fisheries, claiming it had failed to protect endangered humpback whales from entanglement in drift gillnets - sprawling curtains of nylon mesh - used in commercial fishing off California.The lawsuit accuses the National Marine Fisheries Service of violating the Endangered Species Act by allowing drift gillnets without safeguards and failing to take into account the harm posed to whales already at risk of extinction.The suit, citing the government's own data, said an estimated 12 Pacific humpbacks were ensnared in drift
Gulf Copper Wins Contract to Refurbish NOAA's Henry B. Bigelow
stocks, but it also conducts habitat assessments and surveys marine mammal and seabird populations.Launched in September 2005, the 208-foot Henry B. Bigelow was built by VT Halter Marine Inc. and is the second in a series of Oscar Dyson-class fisheries survey vessels designed to meet the National Marine Fisheries Service's specific data collection requirements and the International Council for Exploration of the Seas’ standards for a low acoustic signature.The vessel conducts both acoustic and trawl surveys. For its acoustic surveys, the ship uses a vertical beam echo sounder (VBES) and a
Atlantic Offshore Wind: Favorable Winds for Maritime
developers also have to face permit and environmental law restrictions, including NEPA and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. In most cases, BOEM is the lead agency for compliance with these environmental laws, but other agencies are consulting in the NEPA process.For example, BOEM and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have almost completed an extensive review of the 100-turbine Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts. A Draft Environmental Impact Statement is completed; the Final Environmental Impact Statement will be issued shortly; and NMFS has proposed to issue a one-year extension
Nine US States Seek to Stop Atlantic Seismic Testing
;critical threat" to the natural resources, jobs and lives of New Yorkers. "The Trump administration has repeatedly put special interests before our environment and our communities," Underwood said in a statement.The lawsuit, which names Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the National Marine Fisheries Service as defendants, says the prospect of seeing marine mammals is an important draw for tourists to the states and helps coastal economies.The Department of Commerce declined to comment.Last month the fisheries office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, part of the Commerce
US Government Sued Over Atlantic Seismic Testing
.Seismic testing, which uses air gun blasts, violates federal laws that protect marine mammals, endangered species, and national environmental policy, according the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston, South Carolina, against U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and the National Marine Fisheries Service.The U.S. fisheries service in November gave initial permission to five companies to conduct seismic airgun tests beneath a vast region off the East Coast. The permits allow marine wildlife to be harassed but not killed.Conservationists say the testing, a precursor to oil drilling, can
Seabed 2030 Meeting Held in Stockholm
Italian Ministry of Defense; the Norwegian Hydrographic Service; the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; Italy’s National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics; Fugro; Kongsberg Maritime; TE Subcom; the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain; and NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, among others.Following updates on mapping activities, the meeting broke out into working groups to discuss how to overcome technical challenges in compiling data from multiple sources into a final gridded product, with decisions taken on the specific algorithms to be used. The working
Changing Climate, Oceans and America’s Fisheries
Across America, changes in climate and oceans are having very real and profound effects on communities, businesses and the natural resources we depend on, according to Dr. Richard Merrick is the chief scientist for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. Fishing communities face extra challenges, as droughts, floods, rising seas, ocean acidification, and warming oceans change the productivity of our waters and where wildlife live, spawn and feed. And there is much at risk – marine fisheries and seafood industries support over $200 billion in economic activity and 1.83 million jobs
February 2025
