New
NOAA Ship to Explore the Unknown Ocean
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| The
U.S. Navy has transferred the former submarine surveillance
(T-AGOS) ship USNS CAPABLE to NOAA. The ship, which comes
with Navy funding for conversion, will be dedicated to exploring
the Earth's largely unknown oceans. Among the officials participating
in the formal transfer ceremony was James L. Connaughton,
chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Although this is the seventh T-AGOS vessel transferred to
NOAA, it will be the first to be named in a nationwide
contest. The contest begins October 15 and will be open
to students in grades six through 12.
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| NOAA
Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr. addresses the
audience during a formal transfer ceremony on September
13. Seated from left to right are Capt. Juan L. Chavez,
USN, Military Sealift Command-Pacific; James L. Connaughton,
chair, White House Council on Environmental Quality;
Captain John Clary, commanding officer, NOAA Marine
Operations Center-Pacific; Rear Adm. Samuel P. De Bow
Jr., director, NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations and
NOAA Corps; and Dr. Steve Hammond, acting director,
NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration.
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Cobb
Honored for Aiding Ferry
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| NOAA
employees aboard the NOAA ship John N. Cobb were
cited for their service during the grounding of the Alaska
State Ferry LeConte with a unit citation. At the award ceremony
were (left to right) Lt. Michael Hopkins,
Commanding Officer NOAA Ship John N. Cobb; RADM James
Olson, US Coast Guard 17th District Commander;
Lt. Jonathan Wendland, Executive
Officer, NOAA Ship John N. Cobb; and Angela
Middleton, Fisheries Biologist, NOAA Auke Bay
Laboratory.
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As
part of a project to remove harmful abandoned fishing gear
in Puget Sound, divers removed a 130-foot-long gillnet with
dead crab, lingcod, and a still-struggling rockfish trapped
in the mesh last month off a sunken barge near Shilshole
Marina. The removal project is led by the Northwest Straits
Commission and NOAA Restoration Center. The entangled net
was one of two dozen on the barge. Among those observing
the removal were NOAA Administrator Lautenbacher;
James Connaughton, chair of the Council on Environmental
Quality; and Robert Lohn, NOAA
Fisheries Northwest Regional Administrator.
NOAA’s
Restoration Center is partnering with Northwest Straits
and other local, commercial, tribal and private organizations
to remove harmful abandoned gear, estimated to total in
the thousands of tons throughout the sound. Derelict fishing
gear is dangerous to human safety and needlessly captures
and kills fish, shellfish, marine birds and mammals. With
funding from NOAA, the Northwest Straits Commission developed
and tested protocols for removing derelict fishing gear
in the cold, deep waters of northwest Washington, from the
Straits of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound to the Canadian
border. The commission has identified four fundamental steps
for a successful recovery program: locating gear; verifying
and setting priorities for removal; removing gear; and reusing,
recycling and disposing of gear.
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| NOAA
staff, in Seattle for the Restore America's Estuaries
conference, watch the gear removal project from the
NOAA research vessel Karluk.
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| Employee and Team Member of the Month |
| Employee of Month
Marcia
Hobbs
NOAA Fisheries
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Team Member of Month
Todd
Irby
NOAA Marine & Aviation Operations
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Read
all about the accomplishments of this month’s
Employee of the Month, Marcia Hobbs, and the Team Member
of the Month, Todd Irby, in the next issue of NOAA Report. |
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Northwest
Fisheries Sponsors Interns
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This past summer, NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center
partnered with the American Association for the Advancement
of Science’s Entry Point program, which provides internships
in science, engineering, mathematics, computer science,
and business to students with disabilities. The Center hosted
Angela Foreman, an Immunology Ph.D. candidate from the University
of California at Davis, and Arnal Chandra, a senior in business
administration at the University of Oregon. Angela worked
with Center scientists in Newport, Ore., to better understand
the effects of contaminants on the juvenile salmon immune
system, while Arnal focused on business and administrative
projects at the Center’s headquarters in Seattle.
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| Northwest
Fisheries Science Center Director Dr. Usha Varanasi
(right), with AAAS Entry Point program Director Virginia
Stern (center) and intern Arnal Chandra (left).
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| The Breaux
Act Task Force received the Coastal America 2004 Partnership
Award earlier this summer for its outstanding collaborative
efforts. Louisiana Senator John Breaux congratulated the Coastal
America award recipients and lauded the benefits of the mutifederal
and state agency makeup of the Task Force in restoring coastal
habitat. All agencies have provided important skills and expertise
to address the severe coastal habitat loss in the Nation's
wetands.
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| At
the ceremony awarding the multi-agency honor were S.
Scott Sewell and Sam Hamilton, Department of Interior;
Col. Peter Rowan, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Sen.
John Breaux; Sidney Coffee, Louisiana Governor’s
Office; Miguel Flores, Environmental Protection Agency;
Erik Zobrist, NOAA Fisheries; and Don Gohmert, Department
of Agriculture.
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The
NOAA documentary, Saving Springer is a remarkable and inspirational
story about the work that NOAA, here through the NOAA Fisheries
Office of Protected Resources, does on a daily basis.
In Springer's story, there is a tale of hope and commitment.
The young abandoned killer whale could have been left to make
her way as best she could. Instead the work and dedication of
NOAA professionals helped Springer return to her family.
This documentary will be airing on 90 public television stations
around the Nation over the next several months. As we learn
of scheduled air times, we'll publish that information here
so you might get a close look at some of the work being done
by your NOAA co-workers.
The next airings are on WSRE-TV (channel 23), Mobile, Ala./Pensacola,
Fla., on November 14 at 9:30 pm, with a repeat showing on November
17 at 9:30 pm. The film will also be shown on WILL-TV (channel
12), Champaign, Ill., on November 14 at 9:30 pm, with a repeat
showing on November 18 at 12:30 am.
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At
accessNOAA, we’re always looking for interesting stories
about NOAA people just like you. Whether your office has
received an award, or your collection of Elvis memorabilia
is tops in its class, if it makes a fellow NOAA reader take
a second look, it’s right for accessNOAA. E-mail your
stories and photos to accessnoaa@accessnoaa.noaa.gov,
and you may see it in an upcoming issue. (Digital photos
embedded in a Word Perfect or Word document cannot be used.)
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