NOAA: Making Waves

Join us this week to take a look at the many roles and activities of the National Ocean Service when hurricanes threaten our coasts.

The NOAA Ship Fairweather is surveying remote areas of the Arctic in places where ocean depths haven’t been measured since 1867. We talk with the NOAA Corps Capt. David Neander, commander of the vessel, about the current expedition in Alaska and NOAA's broader efforts to map sparsely charted regions of the Arctic Ocean.

In this episode: NOS Responds to Yellowstone River Oil Spill. NOS is on hand to assist with last month's oil spill on the Yellowstone River in Montana. NOAA Study May Help East Coast Prepare for El Nino Years. Coastal communities along the U.S. East Coast may be at risk of higher sea levels accompanied by more destructive storm surges during future El Nino years, according to a new NOAA study published in the Monthly Weather Review, a journal of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). NOS Ocean Fact. What does peanut butter have to do with the ocean?

We bring you interviews with lead investigators for two new studies in this episode: Climate Change and Harmful Algal Blooms. In a recent study, researchers from NOAA's West Coast Center for Oceans and Human Health used cutting-edge technologies to model future ocean and weather patterns. Atmospheric Dust and the Ocean Environment. In a recent NOAA-funded study, University of Georgia and U.S. Geological Survey researchers considered how global desertification and the resulting increase in atmospheric dust based on some climate-change scenarios could fuel the presence of harmful bacteria in the ocean and seafood.

In this video episode, we take a look at the National Marine Protected Areas Center and preview one of four new videos available on the MPA.gov website.

In this episode: - Major Flooding on the Mississippi River Predicted to Cause Largest Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Ever Recorded. The Gulf of Mexico's hypoxic zone is predicted to be the largest ever recorded due to extreme flooding of the Mississippi River this spring, according to an annual forecast by a team of NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Louisiana State University and the University of Michigan. - Study Sheds Light On Red Tide Toxin. NOAA-supported researchers at Texas A&M University have determined why red tide algae in the Gulf of Mexico make toxin, a development that could prove beneficial to both human and marine life.

It's World Ocean Day! In this episode, we bring you a special video from NOAA's Ocean Today and preview a gallery of photos sent in by NOS Facebook fans and Twitter followers.

In this episode: - Collecting Ocean Data with Marine Mammals. Scientists are enlisting marine mammals with electronic tags to collect critical ocean data from around the nation. NOAA's Integrated Ocean Observing System is working to standardize various tagging programs so researchers can better tap into this data stream. - New Smartphone App Targets Marine Debris. With bottles, cans, abandoned or lost fishing gear, and other marine debris washing up on our shores each year, the University of Georgia and NOAA have teamed up to create a new, innovative cell phone reporting mechanism to combat the marine debris problem. - NOS Photo Contest. World Ocean Day is June 8. Help us celebrate the beauty, mystery, and importance of the ocean by submitting your best ocean photos!

Do you remember filling out a 2010 census form from the U.S. Census Bureau? In this episode, we tell you about the '2010 centroid of the U.S. population' -- a very interesting piece of information gleaned from census data that tells us a lot about how our nation's population has changed over time.

We bring you interviews with lead investigators for two new studies in this episode: Climate Change and Harmful Algal Blooms. In a recent study, researchers from NOAA's West Coast Center for Oceans and Human Health used cutting-edge technologies to model future ocean and weather patterns. Atmospheric Dust and the Ocean Environment. In a recent NOAA-funded study, University of Georgia and U.S. Geological Survey researchers considered how global desertification and the resulting increase in atmospheric dust based on some climate-change scenarios could fuel the presence of harmful bacteria in the ocean and seafood.

Last year, on April 20, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon MC252 drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico killed eleven people and caused the rig to sink. Then, oil began leaking into the Gulf. Before the wellhead was finally capped in mid-July, almost 5 million barrels of oil were released. Today, we look back at NOAA's role in the Deepwater Horizon spill response--the months when oil was spilling into the Gulf--through the eyes of one of the first NOAA responders to the spill. We're joined by Debbie Payton, chief of the Office of Response and Restoration's Emergency Response Division.

Three stories: (1) A new NOAA-funded study links algae to a harmful estrogen-like compound; (2) a new 'marine etiquette' video is launched for visitors to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico; (3) NOAA researchers kick off the eighth year of a mission to explore and map underwater realms of the U.S. Caribbean.

This week, we revisit a May 2010 interview with marine biologist Peter Etnoyer. Etnoyer and colleagues published a study last year that found that seamounts --underwater mountains formed by volcanic activity -- may collectively form one of the largest habitats on Earth, encompassing more of the planet's surface than South America.

International Marine Debris Conference. The Fifth International Marine Debris Conference is set to take place next month from March 20-25 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The event is bringing together international marine debris experts from around the world to look at marine debris from a global perspective. Historic 19th-Century Whaler Found. Archeologists working with the Ocean Service's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have found wreckage of a famous 1800's Nantucket whale ship nearly six hundred miles northwest of Honolulu, within NOAA's Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. Civil-War Era Map Shows Mapmaking Innovations. It isn't often that a map can visually display a moral issue facing a divided nation. Nearly 150 years ago, the U.S. Coast Survey -- NOAA's predecessor organization -- achieved that landmark representation.

NOAA's new Gulf of Mexico Disaster Response Center (DRC) is now under construction in Mobile County, Alabama. The Center -- the first of its kind -- promises to change the way people prepare for and respond to the many hard-hitting storms, spills, and other events that too often strike this fragile region. In this episode, we talk with the acting director of the new DRC.