Healthy habitats are the foundation of robust fisheries and economies.
(NOAA)

May 2013 - NOAA announces the release of an illustrated report outlining the crucial role that habitat plays in keeping U.S. commercial and recreational fisheries strong. Drawing on peer-reviewed articles and original data, the report shows why habitat conservation is a good investment, producing significant gains in the size and health of fish populations.

Highlights of the report include:

• A 1140% increase in migrating herring after fishways were installed on the Acushnet River
• Fish growing six times larger as a result of habitat improvements in California
• Huge increases in blue crab, red drum, spotted sea trout, and flounder populations following oyster reef restoration in Alabama

NOAA partnered with Restore America’s Estuaries and the American Sportfishing Association to produce More Habitat Means More Fish.

April 2013 - We want you to take a bird's eye view of restoration with our wildlife webcams. In 2006, NOAA's Montrose Settlements Restoration Program, established to make up for a toxic DDT and PCB legacy in southern California, installed a live webcam with a close-up view of the first Bald Eagle nest to hatch a chick naturally on California's Santa Cruz Island in over 50 years. Today, there are a total of five webcams on other nests around the California Channel Islands, highlighting the success of our Bald Eagle Restoration Program. Currently these webcams are placed near Bald Eagle nests located on Catalina and Santa Cruz Islands in the California Channel Islands. Viewers can watch daily as both male and female adults attend to their chicks by feeding them and keeping them warm. If you are more interested in what lurks beneath the ocean, then you should check out the live fish webcam that is broadcast from Talbert Marsh in the Huntington Beach wetlands. Read about it on our Office of Response and Restoration blog to learn more.

View the Bald Eagle Chicks webcam

View our fish webcam

The Trustees, working cooperatively
with the responsible party, oversee
restoration to create the creek network and restore tidal flow during the construction
(Photo courtesy of NOAA).

April 2013 - NOAA and its co-Trustees restored approximately 12 acres of salt marsh and an additional acre of upland buffer area on Noisette Creek, a tributary of the Cooper River adjacent to the City of North Charleston, SC. These efforts were part of a larger restoration plan to address the environmental and recreational impacts from the Everreach oil spill in 2002, when approximately 12,500 gallons of oil spilled out of the container ship M/V Everreach as it pulled away from North Charleston. The oil was seen over some 30 miles of shoreline and sediments, including tidal flats, fringing marshes, intertidal oyster reefs, and sandy beaches as well as docks, piers, and bulkheads. As a result of this restoration, the public will be able to enjoy a beautiful living shoreline which supports the surrounding area's ecological services and benefits activities like boating, fishing, shellfish harvest, and shrimp baiting. The Trustees will monitor the wetland enhancements over the next five years to ensure the project achieves the desired ecological improvements.

This project, the first of the planned restoration completed for the 135 acre Noisette Creek Preserve, has created momentum and excitement for several similar projects slated for this small urban watershed. By aligning these restoration efforts with the larger goals for the City of North Charleston's smart and sustainable growth, NOAA and our partners have been able to build stronger, greener coastal communities and support a thriving local economy—a success for both the environment and the people of North Charleston. Learn more at the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration blog!

April 2013 - NOAA and the Hudson River co-Trustees found that living resources at every level of the Hudson River's food chains are contaminated with PCBs and believe that serious adverse effects are likely to be occurring to wildlife exposed to this PCB contamination in the Hudson River. The Trustees identified mink health as one area to investigate. Mink are vulnerable to the effects of PCBs. Hudson River mink eat PCB-contaminated fish and other small creatures, and they ingest contaminated water, soil, and sediments as they look for food and build their dens. This led the Trustees to suspect that Hudson River mink might be harmed by PCBs in their environment.

In a recently published study conducted by NOAA and the Hudson River co-Trustees, farm-raised mink were fed a diet containing fish from the upper Hudson River. Baby mink born to the parents that ate the diet made with PCB-contaminated fish from the Hudson River were much more likely to die early in life than those that ate food with less PCB contamination. This mink research helps show us the extent of the injuries to the mink, so that in thinking about restoration options for the Hudson River, we can consider the need for actions to help the animals recover. Read more about this story on the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration blog and the US Fish and Wildlife Northeast blog.

April 2013 - Since installing two fish passages on the Acushnet River in 2007, there has been a 1,140% increase in migrating herring able to access prime spawning grounds and other habitat. Fish can utilize the passages to navigate past two dams that would block their journey upriver. The fish passages are one of the projects designed and implemented by NOAA and its co-trustees to restore natural resources injured or lost due to electrical parts manufacturers that discharged wastes containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and toxic metals into New Bedford Harbor between the 1940s and the 1970s.

Herring are caught commercially and are also important prey fish for other commercial and recreational fish species, such as cod. But, due to very low numbers, there is currently a moratorium on the take of river herring from Massachusetts waters. Scientists hope to see bigger runs of herring on the Acushnet this spring. For more information, check out the NOAA Restoration Center highlight, Office of Response and Restoration blog, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts study on Acushnet herring runs.

April 2013 - We are pleased to announce the release of the report for the "North Slope Borough: An Oil Spill Workshop on NRDA & ERMA®"  workshop that was held November 8 & 9, 2012 in Barrow, Alaska. The goal of this meeting was to discuss community involvement in spill response and natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). The NRDA process is used to study the effects of oil spills on the environment and determine how much restoration is required. Community concerns and recommendations collected at the workshop will be provided to the State of Alaska and the U.S. Coast Guard for their use in planning oil spill response in the region. The report findings will be used by NOAA and other agencies to establish priorities for NRDA and restoration. NOAA will also use the report to establish priorities for data to augment the Arctic Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) ,a web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) tool that assists both emergency responders and environmental resource managers in dealing with incidents that may adversely impact the environment. Learn more about our work in the Arctic.

March 2013 - Federal, tribal, and state natural resource trustees today announced a pending $19.4 million settlement which will fund restoration of fish and wildlife and recreational opportunities of the St Lawrence River in New York, as well as cultural resources of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe. The pending settlement with Alcoa Inc. and Reynolds Metals Company provides $18,482,082 for restoration and the remainder to reimburse past assessment costs. These settlement funds will be combined with $1,835,482 received from a 2011 GM bankruptcy settlement to fund approximately $20.3 million in restoration projects that address injury to human uses (recreational fishing), natural resources, and tribal culture.

These funds are to offset impacts from past releases of hazardous substances from the Alcoa and Reynolds plant sites in Massena, NY into the St. Lawrence, Grasse and Raquette Rivers near the U.S.-Canada border. NOAA, along with its co-trustees, New York State, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, worked cooperatively with the responsible parties to resolve natural resource liability resulting from releases of PCBs, PAHs, aluminum, fluoride, and cyanide.

The Restoration Compensation and Determination Plan (RCDP) describes the restoration projects preferred by the co-trustees for the St. Lawrence River environment. Settlement funds will be used to acquire land; create native grasslands; restore wetlands, bird habitat, streambanks, and fish passage; enhance fisheries through stocking and/or fish habitat improvements; and create a master apprenticeship cultural program and fund tribal institutions to promote Mohawk culture and language. Alcoa will construct four new boat/shoreline access projects, improve one existing boat access area, and purchase approximately 460 acres of land to be managed by New York State. The public can submit comments on the preferred restoration projects in the RCDP and on the consent decree. The Trustees will schedule informational public meetings in Massena and Akwesasne during the public comment period. Additional information is available on the St. Lawrence River/Alcoa/GM case page and the Office of Response and Restoration blog. For additional details, contact Lisa Rosman.