NOAA's National Ocean Service

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A New Tag Could Reveal How Humpback Whales Hear

The noninvasive tag is attached by suction cups and dropped from a drone.

Sanctuaries

A man collects and puts mussels in bucket on the shore

Celebrating 40 Years of NOAA’s National Mussel Watch Program

The program has documented the decline of legacy pollutants and served as an invaluable resource for coastal management across the nation.

Coastal Science

aerial photograph of large white buildings on a spit of land surrounded by water

NOAA to rebuild historic science lab in Beaufort, North Carolina

New North Carolina facility will continue to provide world-class NOAA science nationwide.

Coastal Science

As part of a June 2026 workshop and training on the use of dispersants as an alternative countermeasure for oil spill response, participants gather around the test tank at the Ohmsett oil spill response, research, and test facility in Leonardo, New Jersey. Image credit: NOAA.

Testing the waters: a day at the nation’s largest oil spill simulation tank

When oil spills, chemical dispersants can be used to break slicks into smaller droplets for "oil-eating" microbes to digest.

3D rendering of Monitor on the sea floor using a heatmap.

The USS Monitor, part 2: underwater 3D mapping

In this follow-up episode, we travel back to the USS Monitor, resting in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean within Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, to discuss a new, innovative underwater 3D mapping technology.

Two people in hardhats on a ship work with a large piece of equipment that contains chambers to sample water from the U.S. Gulf.

NOAA and partners find smaller-than-anticipated hypoxic zone in Gulf of America

Tropical Storm Bertha reduces the size of the zone.

Around the Ocean Service

Blue IQ video series
BEACH SAFETY
The 20th Anniversary of the NOAA Marine Debris Program
MILESTONES
What are El Niño and La Niña?
OCEAN FACTS

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Secure websites use HTTPS

NOAA’s National Ocean Service

tides and currents

nautical charts

career profiles

harmful algal blooms

sea level
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