The Disaster Response Center serves many roles, including as a training facility. Here, U.S. Coast Guard and DRC personnel receive training regarding SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic ...

The international date line, shown here as a yellow line, defines the boundary between calendar dates. The international date line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean and ...

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) occur when colonies of algae—simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater—grow out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, ...

Water temperature and pressure determine how far sound travels in the ocean. While sound moves at a much faster speed in the water than in air, the distance that sound waves travel is primarily ...

New Jersey and South Carolina currently forbid any harvesting of horseshoe crabs, and Delaware restricts harvesting to males only. Despite their common name, horseshoe crabs are not really crabs ...

A boat cuts a green wake—a harmful algal bloom—in Western Lake Erie. NOAA's Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Operational Forecast System in the Gulf of America identifies whether or not a bloom of algae is ...

Closely monitoring marine life at home, around the world is key to better understand our changing ocean. Changes in marine biodiversity—the variety and variability of life in the ocean—can be an early ...

Tide predictions are available for locations on the U.S. coastline, most of the islands in the Caribbean, and many islands in the Pacific Ocean. The image above shows tide predictions for Santa Monica ...

Sea ice is frozen water that forms, expands, and melts in the ocean. It is different from icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves, which originate on land. For the most part, sea ice expands ...

Reef-building corals cannot tolerate water temperatures below 64° Fahrenheit (18° Celsius). Many grow optimally in water temperatures between 73° and 84° Fahrenheit (23°–29°Celsius), but some can ...

This animation shows the dynamic process of how a coral atoll forms. Corals (represented in tan and purple) begin to settle and grow around an oceanic island forming a fringing reef. It can take as ...

Estuaries are important natural places. In addition to essential habitats for birds, fish, insects, and other wildlife, estuaries provide goods and services that are economically and ecologically ...