Dozens of experts from Scotland, Denmark, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. convened in Silver Spring on March 20-21 to share insights into marine cage culture’s effects on the environment and the latest strategies to reduce them. To support growth of the U.S. aquaculture industry while maintaining environmental sustainability, Federal, state and local managers and regulators exchanged [...]
A new study mapping out habitats in and around the waters off New York was released on Tuesday, bringing the state a step closer to determining the potential for wind energy projects offshore. The study is the product of a two-year joint effort by New York’s Department of State and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric [...]
On March 20, 2012, NOAA and New York’s Department of State jointly announced the release of A Biogeographic Assessment of Seabirds, Deep Sea Corals and Ocean Habitats of the New York Bight. The 2-year study, led by scientists at NCCOS and New York’s Department of State Ocean and Great Lakes Program, will advance New York’s management of its [...]
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 [...]
This spring, [New York C]ity’s Department of Environmental Protection will solicit plans for the first major wind project, the installation of turbines atop the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island. And city planners are working on zoning changes, now under review by the City Planning Commission, to allow turbines up to 55 feet high on [...]
Last week, scientists from NCCOS released new habitat maps for Buck Island Reef National Monument (BIRNM) describing the geology and biology of the seafloor from 0 to 1,830 meters (m) in depth. These maps were developed using a combination of manual and computer-based mapping methods, which integrated remotely-sensed images acquired by six different sensors. This effort marks the [...]
Collaborating with local partners, scientists from the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science recently completed annual research missions in St. John, USVI, and the La Parguera/Guanica region of southwest Puerto Rico, where they continue to evaluate the health of marine resources, including reef fish, corals and invertebrates. In both locations, dive teams surveyed habitats to [...]
Scientists from NOAA’s National Center for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) have developed a cost-effective modeling technique for mapping the most important coral reefs for keystone fish species in the U.S. Caribbean. The techniques used only two types of existing data: (1) a detailed map of the seafloor bathymetry collected from airborne laser altimetry, also known [...]