NOAA TOUTS MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 2006
Noting
significant advances in habitat protection, fisheries conservation
and hazard mitigation, the Administrator of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration today touted the agencies accomplishments
in 2006.
“Every
day NOAA’s mission touches the lives of nearly every American
and I am proud that in 2006 we delivered significant results,”
said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad
C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans
and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “Our successes would
not have been possible without the strong support from the President
and Congress and the invaluable work of our many public and private
sector partners at the local, state and federal levels.”
Highlights
from the past year include:
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President
George W. Bush designated the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a
marine national monument, creating the world’s largest marine
conservation area in order to permanently protect the area’s
pristine coral reefs and unique marine species.
-
NOAA
and the Department of Homeland Security collaborated on a program
to place a NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards in every public school
in America.
-
NOAA
worked closely with Congress to successfully pass the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act. The reauthorized
Magnuson-Stevens Act strengthens NOAA’s ability to end overfishing
and rebuild fish stocks.
-
NOAA
joined the government of Thailand in deploying the first Deep-ocean
Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) buoy station in the Indian
Ocean. NOAA built and provided the DART station with funding from
the U.S. Agency for International Development.
-
NOAA’s
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, designed new,
easy-to-deploy DART buoys, which provide two-way communication capabilities
allowing engineers the ability to troubleshoot these systems from
the lab and repair the systems remotely when possible.
-
The
U.S. Tsunami Warning Program reached its initial operating capability
with the deployment of the twenty-third DART buoy in the western
Pacific Ocean.
-
NOAA
established the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)
Office at the Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.,
to provide a real-time status report on the current levels and future
risks of drought in any given location and establish coordinated
planning and preparedness measures for the Nation.
-
NOAA
mounted a multi-pronged effort to address fishery-related impacts
as a result of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico including
awarding $128 million to reseed and restore oyster beds and to conduct
fisheries monitoring in the Gulf.
-
Two
satellite launches this year, GOES-N in May and the European MetOp-A
polar-orbiting satellite in October, helped ensure continued access
to geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite data.
-
NOAA’s
National Ocean Service began implementation of the Hazards and Marine
Debris Survey project in Biloxi Bay, Miss., to search, detect, and
report on any submerged objects left by Hurricane Katrina that pose
a risk to commercial shipping navigation, as well as fishing and
shrimping vessels.
-
In
June VT Halter Marine, Inc. began construction of the last of four
new fisheries survey vessels. Also in June, the keel laying ceremony
for FSV 3, PISCES occurred and in July, NOAA accepted delivery of
FSV 2, HENRY B. BIGELOW. In September, NOAA exercised the detailed
design and construction portion of the SWATH Coastal Mapping Vessel
contract.
The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the
U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and
service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the
Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather
Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much
of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.
NOAA
is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through
the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events
and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing
environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources.
Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS),
NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries
and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network
that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
On
the Web:
NOAA:
http://www.noaa.gov
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