NOAA: Roles and Responsibilities in UUXO

OR

“Trust me, I’m with the Government…I’m here to help.”

Goals:

• Briefly introduce NOAA as an institution• Introduce the Pacific Islands Region of NOAA

(the local and “not-so-local”)• Define some of our roles and responsibilities that

may overlap with UUXO work in the Pacific• Define points of contact for future interactions• Have everyone speaking in nothing but

acronyms by the end of the day

Regional Administrator(William L. Robinson)

Deputy Regional Administrator(Michael Tosatto)

SustainableFisheries

(Alvin Katekaru)

InternationalFisheries

(Charles Karnella)

ProtectedResources

(Lisa Van Atta)Acting ARA

HabitatConservation

(Gerry Davis)

FisheryObserverProgram

(John Kelly)

Operations,Mgmt &

Information

(James E. Cry)

Public Affairs/Outreach and Education

(Wende Goo)

Pacific Islands Regional Office

Matt Parry

NOAA PIR Responsibilities

NOAA Relevant Authorities• NEPA• Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act• Essential Fish Habitat• Coral Reef Executive Order• Endangered Species Act• Marine Mammal Protection Act• Rivers and Harbors Act• Clean Water Act• Magnusson Stevens Fishery Conservation and

Management Act• Coral Reef Conservation Act*

NOAA Involvement Triggers

• Highly variable

• If in doubt contact agency

• Mostly tied to any “federal action”– Basically if fed $ are involved and there may

be impacts to trust resources

Partner Agency Involvement

• US Fish and Wildlife Service• Environmental Protection Agency• Local Government Agencies

– Hawaii (DAR, DOH)*– Guam (Division of Aquatic & Wildlife Resources)*– CNMI (Division of Environmental Quality, Division of

Fish and Wildlife)*– American Samoa (Dept. Marine & Wildlife

Resources)*

Conclusions

• NOAA is very large and complex• NOAA has a wide jurisdiction across the Pacific

in areas with lots of UUXO• NOAA has lots of authorities over marine

resources in areas of UUXO• There are lots of Partner agencies that may

come into the mix depending on where you are• We can help navigate the murky world of

permitting and governmental requirements• We can help identify areas of concern through

local contacts

What to do?

• Contacts– Matthew Parry, Ph.D.

• matthew.parry@noaa.gov (808) 944-2211

– Gerry Davis • gerry.davis@noaa.gov (808) 944-2283