The National Ocean Service: Positioning America for the Future

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThe National Ocean Service (NOS), a line office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is the nation's ocean and coastal agency. Our activities span a broad range that includes charting our nation's coastline; defining the National Spatial Reference System; providing the national network of coastal tide and water level sensors; serving as the lead federal agency of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System; administering the Coastal Zone Management Program; providing the scientific foundation and socioeconomic information to local, state, and regional decision makers to adapt to the impacts of coastal hazards and climate change; serving as the authoritative resource for science related to debris, oil, and chemical spills; managing marine sanctuaries; and supporting the management of estuarine research reserves, coral reefs, and marine protected areas. Today, our coasts and coastal communities face increasingly significant impacts of higher intensity coastal storms; changing sea levels and Great Lakes levels; increased coastal development; increased demand on natural resources and infrastructure; and increased demands on our marine transportation system. In response to these issues, NOS aligns its activities along three priorities: (1) supporting coastal resilience;(2) advancing coastal intelligence; and (3) promoting place-based conservation. NOS relies on coastal observations and data products to carry out our mission. Characteristics of future coastal observations include lower cost coupled with greater efficiency, diverse platforms, multiuse data collection, and crowdsourcing. Data products will need to be increasingly geographically tailored; result from a greater degree of coordination and integration; and result in greater data access.

Indigenous environmental perspectives: Challenging the oceanic security state

“…It is also a heavily securitized space with shipping lanes defended by the US military to ensure unfettered access and control between the continental USA and Asia (Lutz, 2019). Additionally, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (NOAA) is tasked with ‘positioning America’s coastal communities for the future’ through ‘science, service, and stewardship’ (Bamford, 2013). However, the NOAA is administered by the US DOC – the regulatory agency that oversees the EEZ – and thus, conservation is deferred while military and economic controls are prioritized to protect US ‘national security’.…”