NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

Levels of underwater noise from human activities — including from ships, sonar, and drilling — have increased dramatically. Those growing levels of ocean noise affect marine animals and habitats in complex ways.

Join Dr. Jan Newton as she explains how marine heatwaves are influencing life in the waters off the Washington coast in the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Jan Newton is a senior principal oceanographer with the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington, executive director of NANOOS, and Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) co-chair

Kelp forests, found along much of the west coast of North America, provide food and shelter for thousands of fish, invertebrates, and marine mammal species. Learn more about kelp and the habitats they create.

Underwater robots, such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), are essential tools for ocean exploration. These robots can explore areas of the ocean that are too dangerous or too difficult for humans to go. Underwater robots come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be outfitted with numerous sensors and tools to collect extensive amounts of data from deep-sea environments. Explore more with these lessons, videos, background reading, and more.

Down in the deep and dark ocean waters, hot springs on the ocean floor release warm and mineral-rich fluids – these are called hydrothermal vents. Despite the seemingly harsh volcanic environment, these vents are actually home to a variety of life.

A collection of several short underwater volcano videos.

The United States is one of the largest markets for seafood in the world. Every American eats almost 16 pounds of seafood a year, spending about $96 billion annually on seafood. As a result, we have a major impact on the sustainability of the world’s fisheries and in global seafood trade.

Huddled around computers, teams of meteorologists-in-training carefully analyzed data from radar, satellites, and other observing systems. Telltale signs of severe thunderstorms appeared on their displays, tracking toward Dallas. As the storms intensified, these students faced several key decisions: should they issue a severe thunderstorm warning, a tornado warning, or do nothing?

The NWS piloted an initiative in Alaska to automate the process of releasing weather balloons. Autolaunch systems were deployed across Alaska as part of this project.

Citizen science, sometimes called community science, is a partnership between the public and professional scientists where anyone can have a role in the scientific process. Several projects funded through the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) have tapped into this community resource as well, and committed stewards around the country have contributed invaluable data to monitoring and research projects that support our vision of a sea free of debris.