NOAA Reversal Bans Sea Lion Hunting On Columbia River - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

NOAA Reversal Bans Sea Lion Hunting On Columbia River - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Last week, the federal government permanently reversed its decision to exterminate sea lions caught hunting endangered salmon on the Columbia River.

As Care2′s Lauren W. reported last month, the original proposal would have granted the states of Washington and Oregon permission to kill up to 255 sea lions at the Bonneville Dam over the next three years in order to rebuild the salmon population. However, this plan was suspended after extensive campaigning from our non-profit partner The Humane Society of the United States and over 30,000 signatures from concerned members of the Care2 community.

“We’re delighted the agency has changed its mind and revoked the states’ authorization to kill hundreds of native sea lions for having the audacity to eat fish for dinner,” Humane Society lawyer Jonathan Lovvorn said in a statement.

While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reversal will protect the sea lions for the time being, it leaves the recovery of salmon and steelhead trout populations at risk.

According to Reuters, the states contend that California sea lions swim 140 miles upstream from the Pacific Ocean to gorge on the endangered fish at the Bonneville Dam. The NOAA contends that the estimated number of salmon and steelhead eaten by California sea lions has risen steadily, peaking at 5,000 last year. Both fish species have been listed as endangered since the 1990′s.

However, the Humane Society maintains that human factors, such as commercial and recreational fishing and barriers posed by hydroelectric projects, are more harmful to the fish than hungry sea lions.

The NOAA said that it will consider future requests from the states to renew permission for euthanizing sea lions, and both states said they intended to file such applications. Read More

New NOAA report highlights economic and ecological value of the Gulf coastal region | NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Weather

New NOAA report highlights economic and ecological value of the Gulf coastal region | NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Weather

A new report released today The Gulf of Mexico at a Glance: A Second Glance, will provide coastal managers, planners, policy officials, and others with a reference to support regional decision-making and communications about the importance of healthy Gulf coastal ecosystems to a robust national economy, a safe population, and a high quality of life.

The report, released by NOAA, in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,provides economic and ecological highlights about the Gulf’s coastal communities, economy, and ecosystems. This report is an update to NOAA’s original Gulf of Mexico at a Glance, published in June 2008.

The updated version includes nineteen topics that reveal highlights about the region, such as changes in the Gulf’s coastal population from 1970 to 2020, the impact the Gulf’s coastal areas have on the U.S. economy, the extent of land-based and marine protected areas in the Gulf coast region, and the vulnerability of the Gulf coast to long-term sea level rise.

Highlights of the report’s summary facts include:

Gulf Communities:

• Population in the 141 coastal watershed counties of the Gulf Coast Region, has increased 109 percent since 1970, compared to a 52 percent increase in total U.S. population.
• 17 percent of the population in the Gulf Coast region lives below the poverty level, compared to 13 percent nationally.

Gulf Economy:

• If they were their own country, the five U.S. Gulf states—Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas—would together rank seventh in global Gross Domestic Product.
• The Gulf Coast Region had 13 of the nation’s 20 leading ports for tonnage in 2009.
• In 2009, three of the top six commercial fishing ports in the U.S. by pounds landed were in the Gulf Coast region.

Gulf Ecosystems:

• More than 15,000 plant and animal species are found in Gulf of Mexico waters.
• 31 percent of the Gulf of Mexico coastal watershed area is comprised of wetlands, a total of 28,372 square miles of this valuable natural resource.
• Nearly 60 percent of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico shoreline is considered very vulnerable to sea level rise.

“The natural disasters the Gulf of Mexico has endured over the past decade have cast a national spotlight on the strong interconnection between the Gulf economy and ecosystems and its people,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “This report provides a valuable snapshot of the region for our partners, government and non-government alike, who work to protect lives and property, sustain the resilient Gulf ecosystem, and advance the scientific and stewardship goals outlined in the President’s National Ocean Policy.”

Created by NOAA’s National Ocean Service, The Gulf of Mexico at a Glance: A Second Glance, as well as other NOAA State of the Coast website resources,can be viewed and downloaded online.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels. Read More

NOAA puts judicial actions on hold - NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Weather

NOAA puts judicial actions on hold - NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Weather

NOAA has moved to shift the latest legal tangles surrounding overturned cases against the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction and a former New Bedford scalloper out of the hands of the U.S. Coast Guard's administrative law judge system.

In separate motions filed with the Coast Guard, Charles L. Green, deputy assistant general counsel for enforcement and litigation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, wrote that "staying the matter" of legal costs now being sought by the auction and scalloper Lawrence Yacubian until a new administrative law judge system can be chosen to is appropriate.

Green wrote Friday to three Coast Guard ALJs that he was filing the motion "out of an abundance of caution and to avoid further distractions."

The motions require action by the judges: Chief Judge Joseph J. Ingolia, who is in charge of the case for costs filed by former scalloper Yacubian since Judge Parlen McKenna, the trial judge, recused himself from further involvement, and Judge Michael J. Devine and Walter J. Brudzinski, who heard cases against the auction and remain assigned to the pending hearings in which the auction is seeking to recover legal costs it spend fighting enforcement actions for which the Commerce Department has formally apologized.

The decision to seek removal of the cases from the Coast Guard System was made public just as Rear Adm. Frederick J. Kenney, judge advocate general for the Coast Guard, was writing to the Times Monday to defend the performance of his service's legal system.

"We appreciate the fact that NOAA leadership has the confidence in the Coast Guard ALJ system to allow cases to be continue to be heard by our judges until a new system is identified," Kenney wrote.

Green's motion regarding the auction cases went to Devine, who presided over the second of three cases — known widely as the "one fish case" — and Brudzinski, who presided over the pretrial wrangling over a third set of NOAA allegations, with more than 50 counts based of self reported landings mostly of disputed yellowtail flounder.

The cases were settled with no admission of wrongdoing on the part ot the auction in March 2010. But even after Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, acting on the findings of a special judicial master, apologized and paid reparations, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco still filed an order calling for the Ciulla family to shut down the auction for 15 days, reverting to a former settlement. Read More

When Bears Attack, NOAA Satellites Have Your Back - NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Weather

When Bears Attack, NOAA Satellites Have Your Back - NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Weather

Personal locator beacon proves essential to teen hikers

A NOAA geostationary satellite played a pivotal role in the July 23 rescue of a group of student hikers from a vicious grizzly bear attack in Alaska, helping direct first responders to the scene. The teenagers were hiking through the Alaska wilderness and crossing a creek about 93 miles north of Anchorage when the bear attacked. Of the four teens injured by the attack, two required hospitalization.

Other members of the hiking troop activated an emergency personal locator beacon. NOAA’s GOES-11 spacecraft first picked up the beacon’s distress signal, and a European polar-orbiting satellite, flying closer to Earth, pinpointed the actual location of the hikers. The information was relayed to the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center, which alerted Alaska State Troopers and the Alaska Air National Guard who rescued the teens.

NOAA’s polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites, along with Russia’s COSPAS spacecraft, are part of the international Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking system called COSPAS-SARSAT. The system uses a global network of satellites to quickly detect and locate distress signals from emergency beacons onboard aircraft and boats, and from smaller, handheld personal locator beacons, called PLBs.

“A major tragedy was averted because COSPAS-SARSAT and the satellites and first responders that make the system work were in place,” said Chris O’Connors, program manager for NOAA SARSAT.

When a NOAA satellite finds the location of a distress signal within the United States or its surrounding waters, it relays the information to the SARSAT Mission Control Center based at NOAA’s Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md. From there, the information is quickly sent to a rescue coordination center operated by either the U.S. Air Force (for land rescues) or the U.S. Coast Guard (for water rescues).

Now in its 29th year, COSPAS-SARSAT has been credited with supporting more than 28,000 rescues worldwide, including more than 6,630 in the United States and its surrounding waters.

Emergency beacons are the cornerstone of this lifesaving system, but must be registered to ensure responders have all the critical information they need to mount a successful rescue effort. Read More

Weather Channel, NOAA Weather, NOAA Hurricane Center, Weather Underground, NOA | NOAA Office of General Counsel for Enforcement Litigation

Weather Channel, NOAA Weather, NOAA Hurricane Center, Weather Underground, NOA | NOAA Office of General Counsel for Enforcement Litigation

Brown presses NOAA for policing documents

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown Monday formally asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for all memoranda and documents used by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to reach his decision not to discipline or punish the then- director of federal fisheries law enforcement or any of his agents and litigators involved in the mistreatment of fishermen documented by investigators.

In a letter to Eric Schwaab, administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service, Brown specifically asked for "41 documents you located but did not release in response" to a private attorney, whom the Times has identified as Paul Muniz, of Burns & Levenson, Muniz represents the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction.

The auction was one of 11 businesses or individuals identified by Locke as having been victimized by overzealous law enforcement or miscarriages of justice and given apologies and reparations in May.

Brown also specifically asked for "all memoranda from the Commerce Department Office of Assistant General Counsel for Administration Barbara Frederick (or staff) regarding the possibility of discipline for current or former leadership at the NOAA Office of General Counsel for Enforcement Litigation."

In his letter, Brown expressed anger at what he perceived as NOAA's decision to flout previous requests for documents in preparation of a Senate subcommittee hearing into NOAA practices. And the senator asserted that the attitude is that of an agency that considers itself "above congressional oversight."

It was Brown's idea to bring a Senate subcommittee to Boston for a June hearing on NOAA spending and law enforcement abuses. The Faneuil Hall hearing came after findings by both the Commerce Department inspector general and a special judicial master assigned by Locke detailed cases of potentially reversible miscarriages of justice."

Brown's letter to Schwaab probed substantively for the answer to a question he asked that came to define the Faneuil Hall hearing: "What does it take to get fired at NOAA?" Brown asked.

Brown quoted from the decision memo released by Locke in May when he apologized to 11 businesses and distributed nearly $700,000 in reparations based on the report of Special Master Charles B. Swartwood III.

Locke found a "systemic failing," yet that finding warranted no punishment to any NOAA personnel although Dale J. Jones Jr., the director of law enforcement, and the entire Northeast Office of agents and ligitators, based in Gloucester. Jones has been reassigned, while the key Gloucester agents have been reassigned or allowed to retire. Read More