This collection features oral histories with NOAA staff who worked in our oceans and coasts, including oceanographers, surveyors, and environmental scientists.
(Image credit: NOAA)
In 2011, when a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, debris from the disaster washed into the ocean. Nir Barnea, the Pacific Northwest regional coordinator for NOAA’s Marine Debris Program, jumped into action.
NOAA oceanographer Steve Gill studied under oceanography legends Walter Munk and Bernard Zetler, but if you ask around NOAA, Gill is a legend in his own right. He led a 40-year career with NOAA’s tides and currents office.
In 1973, there were no hyperbaric chambers anywhere in South Florida for treating recreational divers with decompression sickness, so Dick Rutkowski set out along with a local dive club to find one - and, they got it.