The Seattle waterfront as seen from the NOAA Ship BELL SHIMADA.

The Seattle waterfront as seen from the NOAA Ship BELL SHIMADA.

The Seattle waterfront as seen from the NOAA Ship BELL SHIMADA.

Fish adorning seafood restaurant in Pascagoula area.

Fish adorning seafood restaurant in Pascagoula area.

Dormant oil rigs looming over the horizon

Restored intertidal marsh at the Lower Neches Water Management Area in Port Arthur, Texas.

A sign is placed to keep the public away from a wet prairie restoration site.

A family digs for clams in the Pacific Northwest. The local fishery of Dungeness crab an oysters contributes $72 million annually to local economies.

Restored shoreline at Hempstead Harbor. This area was designated a superfund site and was used as a petroleum and hazardous waste storage site from 1930 to the 1970s.

Canoeing in the serene waters of the St. Louis River in Wisconsin is one of the favorite recreational activities in the new Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, which was officially designated part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System on October 26, 2010.

The Pokegama Bay section of the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve contains one of the largest municipal forests in the United States. Its 6,723 acres contain extensive forested wetlands, uplands, clay flats and submerged lands in the city of Superior, Wisconsin.

A new NOAA rule prohibits boaters from pumping sewage into all waters of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Pump-A-Head stations are placed at marinas and docks for boaters to pump their sewage into a local sewage system for wastewater treatment.

An oil recovery vessel flares gases during the summer 2010 oil spill. NOAA researchers and colleagues used atmospheric measurements during the spill to derive independent estimates of the recovery rate, oil spill rate and the fate of the spilled gases and oil.

This aging, undersized culvert that conveyed Stony Brook under Route 6A restricted the tidal flow to the salt marsh and presented an obstacle for fish migrating to their freshwater spawning grounds.

The new 18-foot box culvert restored tidal flow and allowed fish to migrate to their freshwater spawning grounds.

A few of the 70 or so vessels waiting to transit the Mississippi River following the collision of a fuel barge and a chemical tanker resulting in the spill of 419000 gallons of oil. Over 85 miles of the river was closed to traffic during the incident.

Oil spill viewed from the Riverwalk in New Orleans. Over 419000 gallons of oil were spilled as the result of a collision between an oil barge and a chemical tanker north of the Crescent City Bridge on July 23.

Whitefish Point, Lake Superior

Gallup Park, Huron River, Ann Arbor, MI.

Muskegon Lighthouse

Muskegon Lighthouse and Muskegon South Breakwater Light. NOAA GLERL Lake Michigan Field Station

Lake Huron shoreline from Presque Isle lighthouse

Detroit River

Lake Superior. Pictured Rocks

Lake Michigan (near Ludington)

Mackinac Bridge

A sand castle on the beach at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan, south of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

A cold and lonely lighthouse

Sturgeon Point Light, Lake Huron

South Haven Lighthouse in a winter storm

Lake Huron shoreline near Presque Isle.

Straits of Mackinac, Mackinac Island

Lake Huron

Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Detroit River Lighthouse south of Detroit River on Lake Erie.

Grand Haven, Lake Michigan

Wetlands

Tahquamenon Falls, Michigan's upper Peninsula

Sleeping Bear Dunes, North Bar Lake. Lake Michigan

Unidentified harbor at sunset

Navigation light at industrial facility harbor area.

Logging in the Great Lakes region

Dock pilings, remnants from Michigan's logging industry

Farming, Port Oneida, Lake Michigan

Quincy Copper Mine. Keweenaw Peninsula, Lake Superior

Quincy Copper Mine. Keweenaw Peninsula, Lake Superior

U.S. Steel Corp. on the Detroit River