NOAA: Making Waves

A new program called Ocean for Life is bringing together students from around the world to help bridge cultural divides through ocean science. We talk with the NOAA coordinator for Ocean for Life to learn more.

Preparing for the Arctic Future:

Within the next two decades, the Arctic Ocean is expected to be free of ice in the summer. That means lots of ship traffic, and lots of ship traffic means the potential for lots of accidents and oil spills.

Positioning Activities Worth $2.4 Billion Annually:

A new study shows that the economic value of services provided by NOS's National Geodetic Service is in the range of billions of dollars.

This week, we travel north of Baltimore to Otter Point Creek to join up with scores of NOAA volunteers gathered for NOAA Restoration Day. Over the past six years, Restoration Day has grown to become one of the largest federal employee-sponsored environmental stewardship events in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Podcast guests include Restoration Day event organizer, park manager at Otter Point Creek's Anita C. Leight Estuary Center, the deputy secretary of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, and the deputy director of the NOAA Chesapeake Bay office.

Join us this week for a talk with environmental marine life artist Wyland about a new campaign to inspire kids with art and science. It's called FOCUS -- Forests, Oceans, Climate, and US -- and it kicks off on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on June 11. The five-year campaign is a partnership between the Wyland Foundation, NOAA, the National Aquarium, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Hurricane season starts June 1. Join us this week to take a look at the many roles and activities of the National Ocean Service when hurricanes threaten our coasts.

Mariners can now get free real-time information on water and weather conditions for the Port of Lake Charles, La., from a new NOAA ocean observing system at the port called NOAA Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS). We talk with the PORTS program manager to learn what this system is all about.

Join us this week to learn about EstuaryLive, an annual event that allows students to take a virtual field trip to estuaries around the country. And we hear from Chief Geodetic Surveyor Dave Doyle on the recent controversy surrounding the position of the Four Corners monument, located at the point where the states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet up.

Join us this week to learn about Bay Hydro II, the newest addition to NOAA's fleet of hydrographic research vessels. We also take a look at a new NOAA-led study that finds a type of tropical fungus called lobomycosis is now infecting bottlenose dolphins off the coast of North Carolina.

Undergraduate students from Rutgers University are finalizing preparations to launch an ocean glider on a journey from New Jersey to Spain. If the craft completes the trip, it will be the first unmanned underwater vehicle to successfully cross the Atlantic. We talk to Zdenka Willis, program director for NOAA's Integrated Ocean Observing System, about the upcoming mission and the future of ocean observing.

A new NOAA report finds that man-made toxic chemicals used as flame retardants in consumer products are found in all U.S. coastal waters and the Great Lakes. The chemicals--Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers, or PBDEs--have generated international concern in recent years due to their global distribution and associated adverse environmental and human health effects. We talk with one of the authors of the report.