Photo by Diane Knaus Baltimore, Maryland Endangered Killer Whales NOAA’s Fisheries Service is proposing new rules on vessel traffic aimed at further protecting Southern Resident killer whales in Washington’s Puget Sound. These large marine mammals, the subject of intense curiosity from kayakers to tourists crowding the decks of commercial whale-watching vessels, were added to the Endangered Species list in late 2005. The proposed rules would prohibit vessels from approaching any killer whale closer than 200 yards and forbid vessels from intercepting or parking in the path of a whale. In addition, the proposed regulations would set up a half-mile-wide no-go zone along the west side of San Juan Island from May 1 through the end of September where generally no vessels would be allowed. “The idea here is to give these remarkable animals even more real, meaningful protection,” said Barry Thom, acting head of the agency’s Northwest regional office. “Without it, we would undercut the hard work we are all doing to recover the species by improving the sound’s water quality and recovering salmon, the killer whale’s primary food.” The fisheries agency said there would be exemptions to the rules for some vessels, including those actively fishing commercially, cargo vessels travelling in established shipping lanes, and government and research vessels. The no-go zone would also have limited exceptions for land owners accessing private property adjacent to it. While Southern Resident whales are also threatened by degraded water quality in the sound and lack of prey, primarily salmon, biologists have known for years that vessel traffic may be tied to their low numbers. The whales, which depend on their highly sophisticated sonar to navigate and find food, can be affected by underwater noise from boats and disturbed by vessels that approach too close or block their paths. The population peaked at 97 animals in the 1990s and then declined to 79 in 2001. It currently stands at 85 whales. The agency’s recovery plan, released in early 2008, calls for actions to reduce disturbance from vessels. If adopted, the earliest the rule would take effect would be May 2010. The agency said it will hold public meetings Sept. 30 in Seattle and Oct. 5 in Friday Harbor for people to learn more about the proposed rules. The public comment period on them closes Oct. 27.
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NOAA December 8, 2009 Winter Storm Warnings From southern California accross the country to the Great Lakes and Minnesota, including Nevada, Texas,Oaklahoma,through Nevada,Wyoming,Nebraska,South Dakota to Missouri,Illinois and Indiana to the Great Lakes. There is a winter storm watch for Pennsylvania. Flood Warnings in Texas,to Louisiana, Arkansas, To Illinois and Iowa. NOAA Gets $830 Million for Reinvestment
The Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will receive $830 million in funds as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The agency will use the funds, equivalent to 20 percent of NOAA’s 2008 budget, for projects that protect life and property and conserve and protect natural resources. The act provides $230 million for habitat restoration, navigation projects, vessel maintenance, and other activities. An additional $430 million will be dedicated for construction and repair of NOAA facilities, ships and equipment, improvements for weather forecasting and satellite development. A total of $170 million will also be directed for climate modeling activities, including supercomputing procurement and research into climate change. "Whether providing grants for habitat restoration or issuing contracts for construction and repair of our facilities, these funds will create jobs while advancing our vital mission to the American people,” said Mary Glackin, deputy under secretary for oceans and atmosphere. "We will ensure that the Recovery Act funding is used as effectively as possible and in a manner that will allow for maximum transparency and accountability.” Red Cross Says If you are without power and heat, the Red Cross offers the following safety tips: Do not use candles for lighting, use a flashlight. Turn off electrical equipment you were using when the power went out. Do not run a generator inside your home or garage. If you use a generator, connect the equipment you want to power directly to the outlets on the generator. Do not connect the generator to your home’s electrical system. Don’t use your stove or oven to heat your home. If using portable heaters or fireplaces, do not leave them unattended. Turn them off before going to bed or leaving home. Place space heaters on hard, level, nonflammable surfaces, not on rugs or carpets, or near bedding or drapes. Keep children and pets away. Use a space heater that shuts off automatically if the heater falls over. Make sure your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are working properly. Practice your home fire escape plan so every member of your family, including young children and elderly, can get out quickly and safely. Your escape plan should include at least two routes out for every room in the home, and a meeting place outside your home. In terms of records, we are currently the 13th snowiest season on record. The all time snowiest snowfall season was 1996-97, when a total of 101.6 inches of snow occurred. Even more interesting, if you consider the amount of snowfall that has fallen up to this point in this snowfall season (e.g. July through January) compared to other record seasons, you will find that we are currently on pace to be the snowiest season on record. Previously, the snowiest first half of the snowfall season was 1993-94, when a total of 58.9 inches was reported through January. Bismarck's grand total seasonal snowfall for 1993-1994 was 91.8 inches. Similarly, during our record season of 101.6 inches (1996-97), a total of 58.8 inches occurred through January. If Bismarck only experiences average snowfall for the remainder of our current snowfall season, Bismarck will end up with around 80 inches of snowfall, which would rate in the top 5 or 6 snowiest seasons on record. Check NOAA Weather Radio Frequencies 162.400 MHz (WX2) Channel numbers, e.g. (WX1, WX2) etc. have no special significance but are often designated this way in consumer equipment. Other channel numbering schemes are also prevalent. NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from the nearest National Weather Service office. NWR broadcasts official Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL...KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT...FOOD... AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY. Groud Level Ozone Daily Forecasts Ground-level ozone forecasts, for years a key predictor of air quality in major U.S. cities, are now available throughout the contiguous United States. NOAA’s National Weather Service, in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has extended its operational ozone forecast guidance to 11 western states and expanded the service in six other states, ensuring that the most populous cities throughout the country will have access to the information on a daily basis. "Poor air quality is
a silent killer, responsible for tens of thousands of premature deaths
each year in the continental United States," said Jack Hayes, Ph.D.,
director of NOAA's National Weather Service. "Weather and air quality
are strongly linked. Temperature and lack of wind can create and trap
harmful ozone where we work and play. Our ozone forecasts will enable
city and state air quality managers to look ahead, see trouble brewing,
and issue next-day alerts for poor air quality."
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NOAA and Awards for Low oxygen Study NOAA has awarded first-year funding of $284,000 to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) as part of a three-year $781,000 project to develop a better understanding of how nutrient pollution from the Mississippi River affects the large area of low oxygen water called the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. The project will also look at how the dead zone affects commercially and recreationally important fish and shellfish. Funds were awarded through NOAA’s Northern Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia and Ecosystems Research Program. “A better understanding of the underlying causes of the dead zone
is essential for predicting its effect on the Gulf fisheries and the
region,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D.,
under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.
“The goal of this research is to help develop a range of options
that coastal and upriver resource managers can use to prevent and reduce
nutrient pollution that contributes to the dead zone.”
This project will provide data to verify water quality models and help resource managers determine the quantitative relationships between nutrient pollution and development, magnitude, longevity, and distribution of the dead zone. Findings will also support the development of more accurate predictive models of hypoxia development on the Louisiana continental shelf. The dead zone is an area in the Gulf of Mexico where seasonal oxygen levels drop too low to support most life in bottom and near-bottom waters. It is caused by a seasonal change where algal growth, stimulated by input of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, settles and decays in the bottom waters. The decaying algae consume oxygen faster than it can be replenished from the surface, leading to decreased levels of dissolved oxygen. This past summer off the coast of Louisiana and Texas, an area of deep water covering 7,900 square miles was declared hypoxic. It is the third largest Gulf of Mexico dead zone on record since measurements began in 1985, and represents an area approximately the size of the state of New Jersey. Also, it is more than one and a half times the average annual dead zone area measured since 1990, 4,800 square miles. The largest dead zone ever recorded covered 8,494 square miles in 2002. The research program, managed by NOAA’s Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, seeks to provide resource managers with new tools, techniques, and information to make informed decisions, and assess alternative management strategies regarding hypoxia. Supported projects are leading to the development of a fundamental understanding of the northern Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, with a focus on the causes and effects of the hypoxic zone, and the prediction of its future extent and impacts on ecologically and commercially important living resources. In fiscal year 2007, the NOAA National Ocean Service, through the center, provided approximately $10 million in competitive grants to institutions of higher education, state, local and tribal governments, and other non-profit research institutions to assist NOAA in fulfilling its mission to study our coastal oceans. In 2007 NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, celebrates 200 years of science and service to the nation. NOAA COAST SURVEY CONTINUES SEA FLOOR MAPPING EXPEDITION IN THE ARCTIC — NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, in partnership with the University of New Hampshire’s Joint Hydrographic Center and the National Science Foundation, will embark on a four-week cruise to map a portion of the Arctic sea floor starting Aug. 17. This is the third expedition in a series of cruises aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter HEALY designed to map the sea floor on the northern Chukchi Cap. Scientists will explore this poorly known region to better understand its morphology and the potential for including this area within the United States’ extended continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The data collected during this cruise will also provide valuable information for better understanding sea floor processes and fisheries habitat, as well as provide input into climate and circulation models that will help scientists predict future conditions in the Arctic. Previous mapping cruises in this series were conducted in 2003 and 2004. The HEALY is equipped with more than 4,200 square feet of scientific laboratory space and a multibeam echo sounder, the primary tool that is used to map the sea floor. The research has been funded through a NOAA grant award to the University of New Hampshire and will be headed by cruise chief scientist Larry Mayer at UNH with NOAA's Andy Armstrong serving as co-chief scientist. Flood Dangers Be cautious at night when
it is harder to recognize flood dangers. Q: What is flood insurance? Q: Why do I need flood insurance? <Q: How do I obtain a flood
insurance policy? Q: Who can purchase flood
insurance?
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