NOAA joined federal, state, and local groups on Wednesday in Alviso, Calif., on the shores of San Francisco Bay to view the breaching of an earthen levee at a South Bay salt pond, an important step in the $7.6 million Recovery Act project to restore 2,000 acres of wetlands.

Today, NOAA and several partners in Hawaii announced a comprehensive long-term plan to actively assess and remove plastics, derelict fishing gear, and other human sources of marine debris from coastal waters and coral reefs along the island chain.

NOAA’s Gulfstream IV aircraft, known for investigating Atlantic hurricanes, will begin flying over the North Pacific Ocean to fill gaps in atmospheric observations, which will enhance forecasts of winter storms for the entire North American continent through improved computer modeling.

NOAA’s State of the Climate report shows the December 2009 average temperature for the contiguous United States was 30.2 degrees F, which is 3.2 degrees F below average. Last month’s average precipitation was 2.88 inches, which is 0.65 inch above the 1901-2000 average.

NOAA is seeking public comment on a proposed rule that would allow the NOAA assistant administrator for fisheries to deny a vessel entry into a U.S. port or access to port services if that vessel has been listed for engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by one of the world’s international fishery management organizations.

NOAA joined state and local officials today in a pledge to remove the San Clemente Dam to eliminate a threat to the lives and property of those along California’s lower Carmel River, and help restore the watershed for federally protected steelhead trout.

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco and the University of California, Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry T. Yang broke ground today on the new 15,000-square foot Ocean Science Education Building on the east side of the UCSB campus. The project brings together the university’s Marine Science Institute and NOAA’s Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.

To the surprise of no one affected by the Dec. 18-20, 2009 system that dumped heavy snow from the mid-Atlantic to southern New England, NOAA has rated the storm a Category 3 or “Major” winter storm on NOAA’s Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale, also known as NESIS.

NOAA’s Fisheries Service today announced that it will consider listing Atlantic sturgeon as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. The agency received a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council in October 2009, requesting that the species be listed throughout its range.

NOAA’s Fisheries Service is seeking public comment on a proposed rule to expand critical habitat for the endangered leatherback sea turtle by designating more than 70,000 square miles in three areas in the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington.