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The NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps (NOAA Corps) is one of the nation's eight uniformed services and NOAA Corps officers are an integral part of NOAA. With approximately 330 officers and growing, the NOAA Corps supports nearly all of NOAA's programs and missions. The combination of commissioned service and scientific expertise makes these officers uniquely capable of leading some of NOAA's most important initiatives. Meet NOAA Corps officer Fionna MATHESON.

Through the use of NOAA'S' Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®), super-sized ships coming through the recently expanded Panama Canal can now more safely and efficiently enter the Miami seaport. In addition to the improved vessel safety, past NOAA studies have shown that a PORTS system, like the one dedicated by NOAA and PortMiami officials today, can provide considerable economic benefit to the local community. Already one of the busiest ports in the world, Miami's harbor supports over a hundred thousand jobs while providing billions to the national economy.

Forty-six crew members, with their lives hanging in the balance, were safely pulled from a sinking fishing vessel in the BERING Sea near Alaska last July. It was the largest single rescue in, or around, the United States credited to NOAA satellites and ground systems.

Two NOAA ships, en route to scientific missions in Alaskan waters, helped locate the missing fishing vessel Destination at the request of the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation. The Destination and its six crew members were lost February 11, 2017, while fishing for snow crab northwest of St. George, Alaska.

NOAA satellites, which are crucial in weather and climate forecasts, helped rescue 397 people from potentially life-threatening situations throughout the U.S. and its surrounding waters in 2022.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Francis SCOTT Key Bridge on the Patapsco River, NOAA, alongside local, state and federal agencies, have been working around-the-clock to come to Baltimore's aid. The tragedy resulted in the loss of six lives and the immediate closure of the shipping channel leading into and out of the Port of Baltimore. Reopening the Patapsco River channel is critical to the U.S. economy, with the closure having lasting impacts on U.S. trade routes.

NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) is busy at work to address a container spill off of the California coast. On February 7, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) contacted the NOAA Scientific Support Coordinator for California to report the loss of 24 shipping containers from the M/V President Eisenhower the prior night, approximately 64 nautical miles southwest of Monterey, California. Hazardous materials were not identified in any of the lost containers and it was not clear at the time of the report whether any containers might remain floating (e.g., were insulated or refrigerated). NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) requested further trajectory information from OR&R on the floating container to better inform the sanctuary spill response decision.

Shutdown Hits Coast Guard Academy, NOAA and MARAD.

NOAA Cautions Boaters to Give Right Whales Space.

Registered emergency beacons proven to save lives.

Registered emergency beacons prove essential to rescue efforts.

Agency also releases a "roadmap" for use of ropeless gear to boost endangered species recovery.

Emergency beacons continue to show life-saving value.

NOAA scientists studying sounds made by Atlantic cod and haddock at spawning sites in the Gulf of Maine have found that vessel traffic noise is reducing the distance over which these animals can communicate with each other. As a result, daily behavior, feeding, mating, and socializing during critical biological periods for these commercially and ecologically important fish may be altered, according to a study published in Nature Scientific Reports.

In the early 1980's, two shipping vessel collisions at the Tampa Bay Sunshine Skyway Bridge happened within weeks of each other. These accidents spurred Federal legislation leading to the development and establishment of NOAA's first Physical Oceanographic Real Time System (PORTS®) in 1991. This July, PORTS celebrates 30 years of providing commercial vessel operators with accurate and reliable real-time environmental conditions to enhance the safety and efficiency of maritime commerce.

NOAA Fisheries analyzes vessel compliance with speed regulations to monitor the effectiveness of this important conservation measure.

Less than 1 percent of U.S. Arctic waters have been surveyed to modern standards. In fact, some nautical charts date back to Captain COOK's time. Here's what it takes to bring those maps into the modern age.

Less than 1 percent of U.S. Arctic waters have been surveyed to modern standards. In fact, some nautical charts date back to Captain COOK's time. Here's what it takes to bring those maps into the modern age.

MSC is grateful to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for presenting it with the highest award of any shipping line participating in a vessel speed-reduction programme organised by to protect whales.

Thinking ahead could save lives, and not just your own

Most species of whales are vulnerable to vessel collisions, and the probability of lethality increases logistically with vessel speed. An Automatic Identification System (AIS) can provide valuable vessel activity data, but terrestrial-based AIS has a limited spatial range. As the need for open ocean monitoring increases, AIS broadcasts relayed over earth-orbiting satellites, satellite AIS (SAIS), provides a method for expanding the range of AIS broadcast reception. We used SAIS data from 2013 and 2014 to calculate vessel density and speed over ground around the coast of Washington state in the northwestern United States. Nearby shipping lanes connecting the Ports of Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, and in Canada, Vancouver, have the greatest density of vessel traffic arriving and departing. Knowledge of shipping activity is important in this area due to the nearby presence of NOAA designated Cetacean Density and Distribution Working Group's Biologically Important Areas (BIA) for large whale species vulnerable to vessel collisions. We quantified density and speed for each vessel type that transits through BIA's. We found that cargo and tanker vessels traveled the farthest distance at the greatest speeds. As ship-strike risk assessments have traditionally relied on terrestrial AIS, we explored issues in the application of SAIS data. Temporal gaps in SAIS data led to a resulting systematic underestimation of vessel speed in calculated speed over ground. However, SAIS can be helpful in documenting minimum vessel speeds across large geographic areas and across national boundaries, especially beyond the reach of terrestrial AIS receivers. SAIS data can also be useful in examining vessel density at broad scales and could be used to assess basin-wide open ocean routes. Future use of additional satellite platforms with AIS receivers and technological advances will help rectify this issue and improve data coverage and quality.