A creek, a causeway, and a salt marsh on Sapelo Island, Georgia – the state’s fourth-largest barrier island and one of its most pristine – are revealing much to scientists, policy makers, and regulatory authorities about salt-marsh ecology....

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Covering approximately 155 million square kilometers (59 million square miles) and containing more than half of the free water on Earth, the Pacific is by far the largest of the world’s ocean basins. All of the world’s continents could fit into the Pacific basin.

The Pacific is the oldest of the existing ocean basins. Its oldest rocks have been dated at about 200 million years. The Pacific basin is referred to as the “Ring of Fire” due to intense earthquake and volcanic activity occurring near areas of tectonic plate subduction (where one tectonic plate is forced under another).

The Atlantic basin is the second largest basin, followed by the Indian Ocean basin, the Southern Ocean, and finally the Arctic Ocean basin.

For more information:
New Zealand American Submarine Ring of Fire 2007, NOAA Ocean Explorer
Submarine Ring of Fire 2006, NOAA Ocean Explorer

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The Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) invites customers to participate in an American Customer Satisfaction Index Survey. Your participation will help CO-OPS improve its water level and tidal current products and customer services....

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Seawater contains salt. When humans drink seawater, their cells are thus taking in water and salt. While humans can safely ingest small amounts of salt, the salt content in seawater is much higher than what can be processed by the human body. Additionally, when we consume salt as part of our daily diets, we also drink liquids, which help to dilute the salt and keep it at a healthy level. Living cells do depend on sodium chloride (salt) to maintain the body’s chemical balances and reactions; however, too much sodium can be deadly.

Human kidneys can only make urine that is less salty than salt water. Therefore, to get rid of all the excess salt taken in by drinking seawater, you have to urinate more water than you drank. Eventually, you die of dehydration even as you become thirstier.

For more information:
Why is the ocean salty?

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On June 18, scores of NOAA employees and partners participated in the sixth annual NOAA Restoration Day at sites in Maryland and Virginia....

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> There are over 1,700 marine protected areas, or MPAs, in the U.S. that cover approximately 34 percent of marine waters. MPAs are found in every region of the United States. The West Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington) has the highest number of MPAs; however, the region with the largest area of MPAs is the Pacific Islands. This is because of the designation of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, which is one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world.  

MPAs are not strictly located in deep or coastal marine waters. There are six federal MPAs and more than 30 state-managed MPAs located within the Great Lakes. Most of the Great Lakes MPAs were created to protect cultural resources, like shipwrecks and historical artifacts. One example of a Great Lakes MPA is the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. This MPA was created to protect the more than 160 shipwrecks it contains.

The National MPA Center has inventoried all of the existing U.S. MPAs and found that almost 70 percent of these areas are managed by coastal states and territories, while fewer than 30 percent are under federal jurisdiction. Many state MPAs were created to protect specific coastal habitats and resources, like beaches and nesting bird habitats. Most of the federally managed MPAs include sites like the national marine sanctuaries, national parks, seashores and wildlife refuges, and federal fishery closures.

For more information:

Marine Protected Areas Center
Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management
Diving Deeper Podcast, Episode 2 (Feb. 9, 2009) - What Is a Marine Protected Area?

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IOOS coastal and marine data (e.g., water temperature, water level, currents, winds, and waves) are collected by many different tools including satellites, buoys, tide gauges, radar stations, and underwater vehicles. A variety of tools is needed to collect data on global, national, regional, and local levels. Some of these tools are in the water collecting data while others may be on land or in space. Most of the data collected are streamed to a database, making them easier to access.

While many of these data collection tools already exist, the benefit of IOOS is the one common system to connect all of these data so that scientists can quickly find information to track, predict, manage, and adapt to changes in our marine environment.

IOOS data supports environmental efforts such as tracking harmful algal blooms and emergency response needs by assisting with search and rescue operations. IOOS delivers the data and information needed to increase the understanding of our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes so decision makers can improve safety, enhance our economy, and protect our environment. For more information:
NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System Program
Diving Deeper Podcast, Episode 2 (Mar. 9, 2009) - What is IOOS?

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Many of metropolitan San Francisco’s eight million people are not aware that NOAA’s Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary surrounds a unique island chain and wildly beautiful mainland shores just beyond the Golden Gate....

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El Niño and La Niña are opposite phases of what is known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. The ENSO cycle is a scientific term that describes the fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the (approximately between the International Date Line and 120 degrees West).

La Niña is sometimes referred to as the cold phase of ENSO and El Niño as the warm phase of ENSO. These deviations from normal surface temperatures can have large-scale impacts not only on ocean processes, but also on global weather and climate.

El Niño and La Niña episodes typically last nine to 12 months, but some prolonged events may last for years. They often begin to form between June and August, reach peak strength between December and April, and then decay between May and July of the following year. While their periodicity can be quite irregular, El Niño and La Niña events occur about every three to five years. Typically, El Niño occurs more frequently than La Niña.

El Niño El Niño means The Little Boy, or Christ Child in Spanish. El Niño was originally recognized by fishermen off the coast of South America in the 1600s, with the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean. The name was chosen based on the time of year (around December) during which these warm waters events tended to occur.

The term El Niño refers to the large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to a periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific.

Typical El Niño effects are likely to develop over North America during the upcoming winter season. Those include warmer-than-average temperatures over western and central Canada, and over the western and northern United States. Wetter-than-average conditions are likely over portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida, while drier-than-average conditions can be expected in the Ohio Valley and the Pacific Northwest.

La Niña La Niña means The Little Girl in Spanish. La Niña is also sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El Niño, or simply "a cold event."

La Niña episodes represent periods of below-average sea surface temperatures across the east-central Equatorial Pacific. Global climate La Niña impacts tend to be opposite those of El Niño impacts. In the tropics, ocean temperature variations in La Niña also tend to be opposite those of El Niño.

During a La Niña year, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the Southeast and cooler than normal in the Northwest.

For more information:
NOAA El Niño Page
NOAA La Niña Page
NOAA National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center, El Niño/La Niña
NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory: El Niño theme page

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Kelp forests can be seen along much of the west coast of North America. Kelp are large brown algae that live in cool, relatively shallow waters close to the shore. They grow in dense groupings much like a forest on land. These underwater towers of kelp provide food and shelter for thousands of fish, invertebrates, and marine mammal species.

Kelp forests harbor a greater variety and higher diversity of plants and animals than almost any other ocean community. Many organisms use the thick blades as a safe shelter for their young from predators or even rough storms.

Among the many mammals and birds that use kelp forests for protection or feeding include seals, sea lions, whales, sea otters, gulls, terns, snowy egrets, great blue herons, cormorants, and shore birds.

These dense canopies of algae generally occur in cold, nutrient-rich waters. Because of their dependency upon light for photosynthesis, kelp forests form in shallow open waters and are rarely found deeper than 15-40 meters (49-131 feet).

NOAA scientists study kelp forests by visiting the same locations over and over to assess the presence and abundance of a variety of organisms. Monitoring allows marine scientists to determine if the kelp forest is changing over time and to identify the cause of those changes, whether natural or human.

For more information:


Kelp Forests, National Marine Sanctuaries

Kelp Forest and Rocky Subtidal Habitats, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

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