Antibiotic resistant illnesses and potential cures in the sea (Episode 16)

The powerful Japanese earthquake and resulting tsunami in March, 2011, washed untold tons of marine debris into the Pacific Ocean. Carey Morishige, Pacific Islands Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program, explains where this debris may be, where it's heading, what's being done about it, and what you can do to help.

NOAA is providing grants totaling over $1.6 million dollars to create seasonal and weekly toxic algal bloom forecasts that are more accurate and provide better early warning of toxic blooms in the Gulf of Maine.

A peer-reviewed study commissioned by NOAA shows the American people assign an estimated total economic value of $33.57 billion for the coral reefs of the main Hawaiian Islands.

Figuring out the exact location of a point on the Earth's surface in three dimensions is what the science of geodesy is all about. Thanks to the network of satellites in space known as the Global Positioning System, we can determine latitude and longitude with great accuracy. Heights, however, are a trickier business to nail down.

In this episode, we talk with NOAA Chief Geodesist Dru Smith to learn how scientists are using measurements of gravity to refine a complex mathematical model of the Earth's shape known as the geoid. Once the new model is deployed, the hope is that we'll be able to use GPS receivers to figure out our current elevation in most places across the nation within an accuracy of two centimeters or less.

State and federal trustee agencies will use most of the funds from a $36.8 million settlement of natural resource damages to restore natural resources injured by the Nov. 7, 2007 oil spill in the San Francisco Bay and to improve Bay Area recreational opportunities impacted by the spill. The funds are part of a $44.4 million settlement with Regal Stone Limited and Fleet Management Limited, the companies responsible for the container ship Cosco Busan that spilled 53,000 gallons of oil into the bay after hitting the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Join us this week for two stories and an Ocean Fact:

Arctic Sea Floor Inventory. NOAA scientists are collecting environmental data off the coast of Alaska in the Chukchi Sea to get a clear picture of this underwater ecosystem before any offshore development begins.

A Whale of a Partnership. NOAA, French sanctuaries join forces to protect endangered humpback whales along their annual migration route.

Ocean Fact. Where is the largest protected area in NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary system?

Join us this week to take a look at the many roles and activities of the National Ocean Service when hurricanes threaten our coasts.

The NOAA Ship Fairweather is surveying remote areas of the Arctic in places where ocean depths haven’t been measured since 1867. We talk with the NOAA Corps Capt. David Neander, commander of the vessel, about the current expedition in Alaska and NOAA's broader efforts to map sparsely charted regions of the Arctic Ocean.

In this episode:

NOS Responds to Yellowstone River Oil Spill. NOS is on hand to assist with last month's oil spill on the Yellowstone River in Montana.

NOAA Study May Help East Coast Prepare for El Nino Years. Coastal communities along the U.S. East Coast may be at risk of higher sea levels accompanied by more destructive storm surges during future El Nino years, according to a new NOAA study published in the Monthly Weather Review, a journal of the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

NOS Ocean Fact. What does peanut butter have to do with the ocean?

Climate Change and Harmful Algal Blooms. In a recent study, researchers from NOAA's West Coast Center for Oceans and Human Health used cutting-edge technologies to model future ocean and weather patterns.

Atmospheric Dust and the Ocean Environment. In a recent NOAA-funded study, University of Georgia and U.S. Geological Survey researchers considered how global desertification and the resulting increase in atmospheric dust based on some climate-change scenarios could fuel the presence of harmful bacteria in the ocean and seafood.