NOAA agencies ride 200-year wave 

John Driscoll

The Times-Standard

May 3, 2007  

For 200 years now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its ancestral agencies have taken on some of the world's biggest environmental issues.

Born in 1807 as the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the agency has proliferated into one that predicts hurricanes, monitors sea life, researches air pollution and has been handed one of the hottest potatoes of all -- global warming.

NOAA has deep roots on the North Coast , with seven offices that hold the department's logo -- a seabird that divides the ocean from the atmosphere. Perhaps its best known function is performed through the National Weather Service, which has an office on Woodley Island .

Slung under the U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA also oversees fisheries management through the National Marine Fisheries Service and supports research on things like wave prediction and eel grass growth on Humboldt Bay , through the California Sea Grant program. The Trinidad Head Baseline Atmospheric Observatory looks at long-term pollution trends, weighing the potential effects of increased energy pollution coming from developing Asian countries.

”The really big issues in society today are covered by NOAA's umbrella,” said Troy Nicolini with the weather service on Woodley Island .

The geodetic survey started its stint in Humboldt County in 1871 with a coastal survey of the bay at the same time the U.S. weather and commercial fisheries bureaus were being formed. Fifteen years later, a weather office opened in Eureka . The National Marine Fisheries Service opened its Arcata office in 1994. It's responsible for enforcement and permitting of projects that affect fish.

Perhaps one of NOAA's lesser-known roles -- but a vital one to those who venture to sea -- is its satellite system. The network not only puts out huge amounts of data on the atmosphere and oceans, but it also helps rescuers track down mariners in trouble.

It's an agency that has long been saddled with extremely diverse responsibilities, but is often not funded to deal with all of them, said Scott Quackenbush, associate dean for marine science programs at Humboldt State University .

For years scientists have pressed for legislation that might free NOAA of its Department of Commerce ties and allow it to set boundaries on what the agency will do, Quackenbush said. Termed the NOAA Organic Act, Quackenbush said the bill could finally pass this year. That, he said, would make the agency more effective.

”Everybody understands that the IRS should collect your taxes and the treasury department should print money,” Quackenbush said, but not everyone thinks that the Department of Commerce should run NOAA.

NOAA itself didn't become an agency until 1970, and has never had a statutory basis for its existence, instead operating under 200 different authorities, according to an agency press release. But one of its key missions in recent years is to develop an ecosystem-based approach to manage the ocean and coasts and to understand changes in the atmosphere.

The idea of ecosystem management sounds good, said California Sea Grant Marine Fisheries adviser Peter Nelson. Tracking everything from weather to ocean currents to anchovies to sea birds sheds light on the big picture.

”It sounds fantastic, but the question is how do you actually do that?” Nelson said.

That ecosystem-level approach is being applied in the Humboldt Bay Harbor , Recreation and Conservation management plan. The district's conservation officer, Jeff Robinson, said that he works with the weather service on Humboldt Bay tributary hydrology as well as harbor entrance wave prediction, and on tsunami preparedness.

”NOAA is well-rooted here,” Robinson said.

John Driscoll can be reached at 441-0504 or jdriscoll@times-standard.com.

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