Ecological forecasts help resource managers better understand their management options, the likely effects of their decisions, and consequences of their actions. In the Chesapeake Bay, deep portions provide more habitats for fish, shellfish and crabs. However, during the summer, deeper waters are too dark for plants to grow and create oxygen by photosynthesis so oxygen [...]
A fire Monday morning (June 25, 2012) destroyed a 55-foot research vessel owned by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration undergoing repairs at the Cambridge Yacht Maintenance boatyard on Cambridge Creek. The RV Laidly caught fire around 8:56 a.m. Monday, according to investigators for the Maryland State Fire Marshal(…) NOAA’s (National Ocean Service) had operated [...]
The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science’s Cooperative Oxford Laboratory (COL) recently conducted an open house in conjunction with the Town of Oxford’s yearly Oxford Day event. The Cooperative Oxford Laboratory is a partnership among NOAA, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and U.S. Coast Guard. The open house is a means to inform the public [...]
With hopes fading fast for the crippled Earth-observing satellite Envisat, researchers are warning that delays to its replacements will leave Europe lacking vital monitoring data for years to come. Launched in 2002, Envisat is the largest environmental satellite ever built and the mainstay of the Earth-observing programme for the European Space Agency (ESA). The 8.2-tonne [...]
On April 8, 2012, the European Space Agency lost contact with its main environmental monitoring satellite, a key data source for developmental harmful algal bloom forecasts in Lake Erie, the Chesapeake Bay, and Florida’s east coast. The satellite–Envisat 1–houses the only instrument able to discriminate cyanobacteria from other algae, as well as find intense blooms [...]
NOAA “Taking the Pulse of the Planet” award is at regional and state science fairs affiliated with the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) to students (one middle, one high school) whose research best supports NOAA’s mission “To understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts…” At the Montgomery County Regional Science [...]
Management agencies are struggling to balance the pressures of coastal development with the conservation and protection of the coastal environment. Representatives of several management groups convened on February 29 to review progress on a NCCOS project studying the ecosystem effects of shoreline hardening, and offer suggestions on linking research results to regional management and policy. This marked the second [...]
Sixty years of monitoring data analyzed by scientists sponsored by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science has revealed a smaller dead zone in late summer in the Chesapeake Bay. The early summer dead zone is larger and seems to have a number of causes, but excessive nutrients are the main culprit for the later [...]