CONTACT: Patricia Viets FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOAA 3/5/97
John Jansen
Harbor Branch
To identify data and information important to coastal areas throughout the United States as these populations continue to rise and impact the environment, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is sponsoring a Coastal Ocean Data Workshop. The workshop, to be held on March 11-13 at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce, Fla., will include about 100 participants from federal, state, and local governments, academia and the private sector.
"Half of the population of the United States live in coastal counties, including the Great Lakes," said Dr. Henry Frey, director of NOAA's National Oceanographic Data Center. "This workshop is designed to increase NOAA's responsiveness to the coastal ocean community. It will ultimately benefit millions of people."
The participants will form into working groups to discuss ocean data and information important to different geographic areas such as the East Coast, Islands (including U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and Hawaii), West Coast (including Alaska), Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes. NOAA is especially interested in learning what data are important to the coastal community, and then acquiring and housing these data at the National Oceanographic Data Center in Silver Spring, Md. In addition, NOAA is interested in learning which information and synthesis products, developed from these data, are most important to the coastal community.
Workshop participants will discuss data required to address issues such as input to coastal areas from waste treatment facilities; oxygen depletion; algal blooms; habitat modification; ecological consequences of the introduction of nonindigenous species; global climate change and variability; shoreline erosion and hazardous storms; and pathogens and toxins affecting human health.
The results of the workshop will be used to: increase NODC's responsiveness to coastal ocean data customer requirements; provide additional opportunities for NOAA to form partnerships and joint ventures with its partners in the coastal ocean community; increase the knowledge and awareness of NOAA's activities within the coastal ocean community; and be responsive to the new Oceanographic Partnership Program.
The workshop is co-sponsored by the NODC, NOAA's Coastal Services Center in Charleston, S.C., NOAA's Coastal Ocean Program, and the Graduate School of Oceanography of the University of Rhode Island.
NOTE: Media wishing to attend the conference should contact John Jansen, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution or Patricia Viets, NOAA. Further information can be found on the Internet at the Coastal Ocean Data Workshop home page: www.nodc.noaa.gov/coast/index.htm Information on NODC can be found at http://www.nodc.noaa.gov
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