Senate Appropriations Committee Provides NOAA $1.16 Billion: On April 4th, the Senate Appropriations Committee (Chairman Thad Cochran, R-MS) provided $1.16 billion to NOAA as part of the FY ’06 Emergency Supplemental (HR 4939). According to a Committee press release, the NOAA funds are to be used for “mapping and debris removal in the Gulf of […]
DENNIS, KATRINA, RITA, STAN AND WILMA “RETIRED” FROM LIST OF STORM NAMESInternational Committee Selects Replacement Names for 2011 List April 6, 2006  Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma, all from the historic 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, were “retired” by an international hurricane committee of the World Meteorological Organization, which includes the NOAA National […]
NOAA / NSF CRUISE REVEALS IMPACTS OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION ON CHEMISTRY, BIOLOGY OF NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN Data collected from ocean sampling in the Pacific Ocean from the southern to northern hemispheres confirms that the oceans are becoming more acidic. A recently completed field study from Tahiti to Alaska collecting data about the effects of ocean […]
NTSB DETERMINES IMPROPERLY INSTALLED FUEL-INJECTION LINE CAUSED FIRE ON A SMALL PASSENGER VESSEL IN FLORIDA IN 2004 Washington, DC — The National Transportation Safety Board determined today that the probable cause of the fire on board the Shuttle Express II was a fractured, improperly installed fuel-injection line on the inboard side of the starboard engine […]
Scoping Meetings on Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fisheries Begin Apr 3 Ten scoping meetings have been scheduled on issues to be discussed in Amendment 15 to the Fishery Management Plan for Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass. The issues under consideration would affect recreational and commercial fishermen. Manteo, NC; April 3, […]
New Requirements for Bottom Longline Fishery Would Protect Sea Turtles and Reef Habitat This proposed rule would establish additional handling, release, and disentanglement requirements for non-target species caught in the shark bottom longline fishery. These new practices, which have already been adopted in the pelagic longline fishery, are designed to reduce the injuries and deaths […]
New Proposal Addresses Mitigation of Impacts to Wetlands On March 27, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced proposed revisions to regulations governing compensatory mitigation for authorized impacts to wetlands, streams, and other waters under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. These revisions are designed to improve the effectiveness of compensatory mitigation […]
NRC Endorses Proposal for Saltwater Angler Registration The National Research Council (NRC), part of the National Academy of Sciences, has presented NOAA with the preliminary findings of a study to improve the agency’s scientific program for recreational marine fisheries. NOAA commissioned the NRC study in 2004 to gain unbiased scientific insight into ways the agency […]
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL ENDORSES ADMINISTRATION’S PROPOSAL FOR UNIVERSAL SALTWATER ANGLER REGISTRATION The National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, has presented NOAA with preliminary findings of a study to improve the agency’s scientific program for recreational marine fisheries. NRC’s primary recommendation supports the administration’s call for a universal angler registration program […]
Senate Commerce Disaster Prevention Subcommittee Holds Polar Satellite Hearing: On March 30th, the Senate Commerce Disaster Prevention and Prediction Subcommittee (Chairman Jim DeMint, R-SC) held an oversight hearing on the delays and cost overruns of the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). The Air Force and NOAA are jointly funding the NPOESS program, which […]
