After negotiations with the chairman of the International Whaling Commission, Japan has agreed not to target humpback whales during its annual whale hunt that is underway in the seas off Antarctica.

New NOAA fisheries survey vessel, launched on Dec. 19, in Mississippi, will be able to study fish quietly without altering their behavior.

NOAA and NASA today announced Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company of Palo Alto, Calif., has been selected for a $96.7 million (including options) contract award to design and develop a new instrument on the next generation of weather satellites.

NOAA Fisheries Service biologists estimate a beluga whale population of 375 in the Cook Inlet near Anchorage, Alaska, according to data collected during their annual survey in June. This population estimate is the largest since 2001.

NOAA is proposing to extend most of the prohibitions of the Endangered Species Act - normally applied only to endangered species - to the threatened elkhorn and staghorn corals.

Officials have broken ground for a new, larger NOAA Great Lakes research laboratory in Pittsfield Township, replacing the current Ann Arbor laboratory in mid to late 2008. The new building will provide twice as much space as the current location as well as updated wet and dry laboratories, and new conference capabilities including a lecture hall that can seat 150.

NOAA Coral Reef Watch coordinator Mark Eakin, and 17 fellow coral scientists from around the globe say corals could begin to disappear in 50 to 75 years due to steadily warming temperatures and increasing ocean acidification caused by carbon dioxide emissions.

NOAA has established a new monitoring program in Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary to collect data on the location and types of marine debris in the sanctuary.

NOAA Captain Michele G. Bullock recently took command of the day-to-day operations of the 10 research and survey ships in NOAA’s Pacific fleet controlled from the agency’s Marine Operations Center-Pacific in Seattle.

Custer County, Idaho, and the communities of Challis, Mackay, and Stanley completed the NOAA National Weather Service StormReady program, better equipping the county to handle severe weather. The Custer County emergency management team fulfilled a rigorous set of warning and evacuation criteria, including the development of a formal hazardous weather plan.

NOAA released a new report, The State of Deep Coral Ecosystems of the United States, called for in the President’s Ocean Action Plan on December 10. The peer-reviewed report, prepared by NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program, provides a baseline for future research and management of these unique and vulnerable ecosystems.

Retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator, announced today that Mary M. Glackin has been appointed as deputy under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere.