National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Worth Knowing
• NOAA, Partners Launch Effort for Tour Operators to Protect Whales: NOAA has joined with private industry and conservation groups to launch Whale SENSE, a new voluntary program that encourages whale-watch tour operators from Maine to Virginia to practice responsible viewing. The program will also recognize businesses that discourage the harassment of whales in the wild and promote good stewardship...
• Beyond CO2: Study Reveals Growing Importance of HFCs in Climate Warming: Some of the substances that are helping to avert the destruction of the ozone layer could increasingly contribute to climate warming, according to scientists...
• New Report Provides Assessment of National, Regional Impacts of Global Climate Change: Climate change is already having visible impacts in the United States, and the choices we make now will determine the severity of its impacts in the future...
• NOAA Forecast Predicts Large "Dead Zone" for Gulf of Mexico this Summer: A team of NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Louisiana State University, and the University of Michigan is forecasting that the "dead zone" off the coast of Louisiana and Texas in the Gulf of Mexico this summer could be one of the largest on record...
• NOAA Announces New Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites: “To help us understand climate change, we have to find ways to best leverage all of our available resources, including the information we get from satellites...
• Changes in Vessel Operations May Reduce Risk of Endangered Whale Shipstrikes: Years of study and effort by NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard will pay off this summer when two changes to shipping lanes into Boston are implemented. Both changes significantly reduce the risk of collisions between large ships and whales...
• New NOAA Report Offers In-depth Look at Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine Life, Ecosystems: A new NOAA report on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), protected by the Papahánaumokuákea Marine National Monument, provides the sharpest picture yet of the region’s marine life and ecosystems...
• Four Fish Stocks Declared Fully Rebuilt: NOAA’s Fisheries Service reported to Congress today that four stocks — Atlantic bluefish, Gulf of Mexico king mackerel and two stocks of monkfish in the Atlantic — have been rebuilt to allow for continued sustainable fishing. This is the largest number of stocks to be declared rebuilt in a single year since the fisheries service declared the first stock successfully rebuilt in 2001...