MACOORA - News and Media

Legislative Affairs

In an effort to develop closer ties with congressional lawmakers-- to educate and inform them about the value of ocean observations -- MACOORA continues to make congressional visits to the Hill. On March 25, 2010, MACOORA Director Dr.Wendell Brown and Judith Krauthamer (Executive Director) met with 7 congressional offices. Massachusetts offices visited were: Reps Barney Frank, James P. McGovern, John W. Olver, John Tierney, Michael E. Capuano, Congresswoman Niki Tsongas and Senator Kerry. We provided information on IOOS, the National Federation of Regional Associations (NFRA), NERACOOS (the regional association to the north), MACOORA's new fact sheet , and our request for funding for FY11. Visits to the Hill will be ongoing throughout the year. Recently twenty five House members signed Reps Capps and Pingree's "Dear Colleague Letter" in support of IOOS Appropriations for FY11. Signatories within the MACOORA footprint include: Cummings (MD), Moran (VA), Delahunt (MA) [overlap with NERACOOS], DeLauro(CT) [overlap with NERACOOS], Hall (NY), Hinchey (NY), Langevin (RI) [overlap with NERACOOS] and McIntyre (NC) [overlap with SECOORA].

On February 17 and 18, 2010, MACOORA member Liz Smith (CBOS), Board members Ed Kelly and Jeff Yapalater, and Judith Krauthamer (Executive Director) met with 13 congressional offices to discuss MACOORA and the importance of funding for ocean observations. Offices visited were: Rep. Frank R. Wolf [R-Virginia, 10th District], Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett [R-Maryland, 6th District], Rep. Steve Israel [D-New York, 2nd District]; Rep. José E. Serrano [D-New York, 16th District], Rep. Nita M. Lowey [D-New York, 18th District], Rep. James P. Moran, [D-Virginia, 8th District], Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. [D-New Jersey, 6th District], Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey [D-New York, 22nd District], Rep. Steven R. Rothman [D-New Jersey, 9th District], Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen [R-New Jersey, 11th District], Rep. Elijah Cummings [D-MD, 7th District ] and Rep. Michael E. McMahon [D-New York, 13th District]. Visits to the Hill will continue with congressional offices in the northern reaches of MACOORA, including Ct, MA, and RI. Offices were given information on IOOS, the National Federation of Regional Associations (NFRA) and MACOORA's new fact sheet .

September 24, 2009. MACOORA testifies before the Interagency Ocean Task force in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Task Force’s Interim Report is undergoing a 30-day public review and comment period. This report provides proposals for a comprehensive national approach to uphold our stewardship responsibilities and ensure accountability for our actions.

Dr. Wendell Brown testified on behalf of MACOORA. Read the testimony here

Current Events

DEEPWATER OIL SPILL UPDATES

May 6. Scientists say oil spill could make it up Atlantic coast. In an article by Scott Harper , The Virginian-Pilot, “Scientists are increasingly worried that spilled oil from the Gulf of Mexico may get sucked into the Gulf Stream and make its way up the Atlantic coast to Virginia and North Carolina, perhaps within two or three weeks. The same scientists say it is unlikely that any oil would reach shore and spoil beaches in either state, though offshore fishing and sea turtle migration off the coast of both states would likely suffer. If the massive spill that resulted from an oil rig explosion off Louisiana "keeps going, and they don't stop it, we might start to see small tar balls on the edges of the Gulf Stream" off Virginia and North Carolina, said Larry Atkinson, an oceanographer at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.He said it would take unusual and sustained northerly winds to blow oil from the Gulf Stream onto beaches in Virginia and North Carolina, "but stranger things have happened."

Atkinson is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Observation System, a group of scientists and marine businessmen who are monitoring the Gulf spill and providing information to the Coast Guard and other potential responders.

Cape Hatteras on North Carolina's Outer Banks is especially vulnerable, scientists say, given the way it juts into the ocean and is only 10 to 15 miles from the Gulf Stream.In Virginia, this same offshore belt of warm moving water, rich in fish and marine mammals, is about 20 to 30 miles from beaches. "We are concerned, definitely concerned," said Harvey Seim, a marine science professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He and other scientists have been briefing emergency management coordinators along the Atlantic coast for several days.Seim could not recall whether spilled oil from the Gulf of Mexico had ever traveled all the way to the mid-Atlantic coast. But, he said, studies have proved that silt from the Mississippi River has reached North Carolina via the Gulf Stream."We know silt and debris can move along the coast in this way, which is why we're watching this oil so closely," Seim said Wednesday.

SECOORA, the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association , is working to facilitate availability of the most recent information on Member activities and other resources on the developing Horizon rig explosion and oil spill tragedy.

GCOOS, the Gulf Coast Ocean Observing System, has posted a number of observing products to facilitate understanding and remediation efforts for the oil spill.

The NOAA Office of Response and Restoration provides daily updates.

Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center provides daily updates. You can also register on the site to receive future updates on response activities and submit

Oil spill trajectories created in GNOME, the NOAA spill trajectory model, can be found here .

NOAA's National Weather Service has created a special forecast for the incident area

OBSERVATION UPDATES:

MACOORA is holding teleconferences to determine what assets we hold that can be deployed, and which model(s) can best be used for prediction. The NYHOPS team has considerable experience with the NOAA GNOME oil spill tracking software. We have used GNOME with our surface currents to address medical waste spills, searches and rescues and backtracking where a suitcase full of drugs originated. In addition, each morning we upload a file of forecasted surface currents in a very specific format to the NOAA HAZMAT computer system for their use in case of an emergency in the waters of NY/NJ. The HAZMAT team has easily incorporated our surface currents when they have responded to specific events. We understand the formatting issues and know how to use the GNOME mapping programs.

Action items include:

1. Get data into the EDS if needed – HIGH PRIORITY

2. GNOME data - get data into it if needed.

3. Prepare for phone calls so that we speak from an informed point of view.

4. How to leverage OSSI exercise into this issue? Wendell and Oscar.

5. MACOORA website with info links for people –

6. What assets are deployable or re-locatable: Gliders etc.

7. Set up telecoms for MACOORA members, PIs, Directors and partners

The National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC), an atmospheric hazards prediction team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will begin predictive modeling of the smoke plumes. NASA has volunteered use of a reconnaissance aircraft for NOAA's use in conducting overflights of the affected areas (during overflights, trained observers record locations of oil, affected wildlife, and other relevant observations).

New command centers were “stood up” in three locations around the Gulf of Mexico, including

Twice daily, NOAA oceanographers continue to release updated trajectory maps showing the predicted trajectory of the oil slick.

MACOORA Press Releases

August 22, 2009:Unmanned submarines glide across the ocean, putting Rutgers at leading edge of exploration. Another Slocum glider, as oceanographers prefer to call the robo-subs, was launched off Sandy Hook Thursday on a ground-breaking mission to patrol the shallow waters of the entire New Jersey coast, taking ocean bed samples every two seconds. Another will head to Antarctica this fall to monitor polar storms too brutal for human survival... read more

June 16, 2009: New NY Mariner Weather Buoy The Hudson Canyon will get a real-time weather buoy slated to be deployed this week...read more

June 16, 2009: Letter in response to June 7th Washington Post Article "East Coast My Feel Rise in Sea Levels the Most" read it here

June 9, 2009. CODAR helps pinpoint search and rescue at sea [...]

May 4, 2009: NOAA, US Coast Guard: New Ocean Current Data to Improve Search and Rescue Activities A new set of ocean observing data that enhances the ability to track probable paths of victims and drifting survivor craft should improve search and rescue efforts along the U.S. coast...more here

April 27, 2009. Comments on the National Weather Service Strategic Plan [...]

April 18, 2009: Yellow submarine to try again for Atlantic glide From the Associated Press - A second try is about to get under way at sending a little yellow submarine gliding across the Atlantic Ocean to collect scientific data from beneath the waves...more here

MACOORA Newsletters

eNewsletters

E-News October 2009

E-News September 2009

Newsletter Publications

Summer July 2009 edition

Spring April 2009 edition

Winter January 2009 edition

Multimedia

Podcast: Underwater Robot Undertakes Atlantic Mission Listen

An underwater robot called RU-27 is crossing the Atlantic Ocean right now — on its way to Spain. The Rutgers University project will gather data that may help explain oceanographic trends, including the interaction between climate change and ocean temperatures. We talk with Ari Daniel Shapiro, who has been following the story for Spectrum Radio, the broadcast edition of IEEE Spectrum Magazine.

NOAA Podcast Episode 23: Ocean Observations in action- (10 min Podcast)

Undergraduate students from Rutgers University are finalizing preparations to launch an ocean glider on a journey from New Jersey to Spain. Learn about the upcoming mission and the future of ocean observing. click here