A pair of undergraduate science divers from UCONN working with NOAA and UCONN scientists in the Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary. Copyright E. Heupel

In short:

NOAA is a pretty lean organization operating on a budget that has been essentially flat for the past 5 years (minus two new joint NASA, NOAA and DoD programs to build and launch new weather satellite systems to replace the aging fleet currently in use). Most of the NOAA departments provide either significant public safety services, economic and food sustainability, or both. They also provide significant direct and indirect educational and outreach opportunities to children, educators, and the public. Cutting NOAA by the ~10% proposed will have direct short term and long term negative impacts on every American.

Maybe it would help people who are unfamiliar with NOAA to understand why this is such a big deal, if I explain what NOAA is.

NOAA is a relatively small organization, approximately 7,000 people, nestled under the Department of Commerce (but some argue it should be its own department). It was started in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, but it was formed from many extant government organizations that date back to 1807. NOAA was created to better protect American life and property, for as President Nixon put it:

The oceans and atmosphere are interacting parts of the total environmental system upon which we depend, not only for the quality of our lives, but for life itself.

We face immediate and compelling needs for better protection of life and property from natural hazards, and for a better understanding of the total environment — an understanding which will enable us more effectively to monitor and predict its actions, and ultimately, perhaps to exercise some degree of control over them.

We also face a compelling need for exploration and development leading to the intelligent use of our marine resources. We must understand the nature of these resources, and assure their development without either contaminating the marine environment or upsetting its balance.

Establishment of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — NOAA — within the Department of Commerce would enable us to approach these tasks in a coordinated way.

Much of NOAA’s job is directly related to either protecting American lives and property or protecting American long term economic interests (National Marine Fisheries Service). It’s the responsibility of NOAA to report on and predict all the weather on land or sea and the contents of the seas out to our Exclusive Economic Zone or EEZ (the area of ocean from the US coastline to 200 nautical miles out to sea). For years now (essentially since they were founded in 1970), they have been surviving on a pretty trim budget for what they do. For the 2012 fiscal year the President’s budget has NOAA at $5.5 billion, a bit less that we spend on the Federal Prison System ($6.8B) and roughly equivalent to NASA’s Science budget ($5B), the Army’s Training and Recruiting Budget ($5B) or… a hair less than the Budget for the Legislative Branch ($5.6B).

Two NOAA/UNCW Aquarius working divers prepare to splash to recover saturation divers in the habitat. Image J. Brugger

So what do we (meaning the general public) get for $5.5B?

Let’s start with the oldest branches of NOAA – The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and the Office of Coast Survey (OCS). Both arise from the Survey of the Coast agency created by President Thomas Jefferson to create the essential charts of the new nation’s navigable waters to ensure safe commerce and defense. Today the OCS continues this mission and is responsible for charting the 3.5 million square miles of our Exclusive Economic Zone. This is an ongoing process as storms and other natural processes continue to shape the sea floor topography. In addition, shipwrecks happen and containers fall overboard, all creating new topography and obstacles to safe navigation, etc. Even if topography didn’t change, our technology continues to improve, allowing more accurate and finer resolution maps to be produced. NOAA data from the NGS also provides us with the spatial reference systems that appear on almost every map produced in the U.S. They are responsible for the Continuously Operating Reference System which augments the GPS system to provide sub-meter 3D spatial position accuracy. Possibly one of the most important tasks of NGS, at least for anyone who ever flies, is the extremely high resolution and accuracy information the NGS collects around all airports and provides to the FAA so they can develop safe instrument augmented and instrument only take-off and landing approaches and help determine maximum take off loads. These are clear public safety and economic benefit that we shouldn’t do without.

National Weather Service (NWS), anyone?

I have had the pleasure of living in many states across our beautiful country. Everywhere I’ve lived three things have held true:

• “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a few minutes….”
• There is some form of extreme weather event that is common enough to be on everyone’s mind when the proper season hits
• and finally, in large part because of the first two… many people rely on the national and regional forecasts and warnings provided by the NWS to safely plan their (select (m)any) day, weekend, week, planting, major event, flights, boating, diving (personal favorite), and, in many cases, work.

I’ve personally lived through hurricanes, tornados, horrendous hail storms, desert flash floods, severe coastal flooding, Nor-Easters with gale force winds, 117 degree F summer droughts and extreme cold snaps. In large part I survived them all because I could prepare or take immediate shelter thanks to the advanced warnings provided by the NWS. Many people in this nation, whether they realize it or not, are in the same debt for life and for property to the NWS.

NOAA WP-3D Hurrican Hunters taking off to fly into the eye of another hurricane.

Now to the controversial part of NOAA, or at least historically the most controversial, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). They are responsible for the stewardship of our nation’s marine species and the habitats on which those species depend. NMFS is an old agency originating in the 1870s, with the first fisheries lab in Woods Hole established by the first Fish Commissioner Spencer F. Baird and his left hand man, Vinal Edwards (Employee number 1). Their first task was to try and determine the fate of coastal fish along southern Massachusetts – small boat hand line fishermen and sport fishermen blamed pound net fishermen (erecting nets from the shore) for the disappearance of once plentiful coastal species such as tautog, scup, striped bass, and sea bass.

Today the main job of NMFS remains the monitoring of commercially important fish stocks, predicting the future stock levels and protecting both the future viability of those stocks and the habitats on which they depend. From an economic and societal perspective, all those stocks belong to every American. They are considered a natural resource, which belong to all the people, just as much as the federal forests or fresh waters do. Theirs is not an easy task, and especially here in New England, they are little loved, even though they are doing their best to use the best science available to walk a narrow line – providing enough protections for the fish, a national resource, while not causing undue harm to the fishing community, a limited group of private parties which pay few to no rents for the access to the resources. Already short-handed, the folks at NMFS ensure future food security and economic sustainability.

The NOAA ship Nancy Foster, part of the East Coast NOAA fleet of research and fisheries survey vessels.

The Rest of NOAA

NOAA also conducts extensive research on climate change, ocean acidification, and marine invasive species impacts. They maintain a fleet of 19 research ships and a dozen aircraft. The ships are a mix of oceanography and fisheries research vessels with a Pacific and an Atlantic fleet. The aircraft are mostly used for weather data gathering, including hurricane hunters that take their planes for a wild bronco ride straight through hurricanes and into the eye in order to measure the maximum eyewall winds and eye pressure, essential measurements for predicting the current storm track and helping model future storm behaviors. A professional uniformed corp of sailors, science technicians and airmen operate and maintain these vessels, many of which spent extended time in the Gulf responding to the oil spill.

Did I mention the National Marine Sanctuaries program? Think of it as the National Parks but on - and under - the sea. I have had the privilege of working in three of the sanctuaries, and hope to eventually visit them all. Each sanctuary has its own goals and rules, but in general it is to preserve a culturally, historically, or biologically important area of the sea set aside as a marine protected area. “Marine protected area” is a very loose term. Through much of Stellwagen Bank NMS commercial fishing is allowed exactly as it is throughout the rest of the Gulf of Maine. Other sanctuaries, Like Gray’s Reef NMS and the Florida Keys NMS have varying levels of prohibitions on commercial fishing, or gear types allowed within their boundaries. Each sanctuary employs a small (10-12 full time staff) but very dedicated team of scientists, NOAA Corps, administrators and educators to coordinate and conduct research and reach out to the local and regional communities. Gray’s Reef sponsors a Marine Film Fest every year, along with excellent online educational materials. The Florida Keys now sponsor Lionfish Derbies to catch as many lionfish as possible.

After the evening debriefing, the crew of scientists, educators and outreach specialists continue to discuss the highs and lows of the day and how to make tomorrow even better.

I have been privileged to work with NOAA using their assets for our own research, collaborating with their scientists, helping them undertake a series of interactive broadcast from under the sea to thousands of kids across the nation, linking kids thousands of miles from the sea directly to active ocean research, and giving them the chance to directly ask questions of the researchers and divers.

So where would you cut?

Each part of NOAA directly affects either public safety, current and future food and economic security, or both. If you cut the NWS, you risk putting American lives and property at risk. Cut NMFS and you endanger the sustainability of our fish stocks and risk our future food supplies. Cut the satellites or the uniformed service or reduce the fleet and the other NOAA departments are all reduced in their ability to do their jobs. Cut the outreach and education and you are not just taking away the ability to share the oceans with millions of kids across the nation and significantly reducing the number of teachers’ learning resources, you are dangerously reducing the number of people who will do all these vitally important jobs in the future. Any organization that focuses on science education is important in the 21st Century. We can’t afford to fall even further behind the rest of the world. The price we pay is saving a dollar today at the cost of tens of thousands in lost opportunities tomorrow.

How short-sighted can the people who want to axe NOAA be? The NOAA budget is a scant $5.5 billion and their true operating budget has been essentially flat since 2006. Is this really where you want to cut the budget? To me it smells of self-serving climate change denialism vengeance more than realistic budgetary considerations.

Edit: Dan Satterfield at The AGU Blog has an excellent article highlighting exactly what the loss of the new satellite programs will mean.

In a McCain-Palin administration, we will also fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. To his great credit, it was President Gerald Ford who signed the legislation that became the IDEA — establishing new standards of respect and inclusion for young Americans with disabilities. From that day to this, however, the federal government’s obligations under the IDEA have not been adequately met. And portions of IDEA funding have actually decreased since 2005.

This is a matter of how we prioritize the money that we spend. We’ve got a three trillion dollar budget, and Congress spends some 18 billion dollars a year on earmarks for political pet projects. That’s more than the shortfall to fully fund the IDEA. And where does a lot of that earmark money end up? It goes to projects having little or nothing to do with the public good — things like fruit fly research in Paris, France, I kid you not. Or a public policy center named for the guy who got the earmark. In our administration, we’re going to reform and refocus. We’re going to get our federal priorities straight, and fulfill our country’s commitment to give every child opportunity and hope in life.

For many parents of children with disabilities, the most valuable thing of all is information. Early identification of a cognitive or other disorder, especially autism, can make a life-changing difference. That’s why we’re going to strengthen NIH. We’re going to work on long-term cures, and in the short-term, we’re going to work on giving these families better information.

So what is this fruit fly thing?

What she was specifically speaking about was a research program studying a species of fruit fly, the olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae, that is a major pest to the olive industry. The fly is native to Europe and is a recent invader to California where it threatens the California olive industry with significant damages. The fly oviposits its eggs in young olives where the larvae proceed to eat the fruit, pupate inside the olives and then eat their way out.

Representing his constituents in California, including the olive growers, Rep. Mike Thompson sought $748,000 in an earmark to research this invasive pest:

The Olive Fruit Fly has infested thousands of California olive groves and is the single largest threat to the U.S. olive and olive oil industries,” he said. “I secured $748,000 for olive fruit fly research and irradiation in the (fiscal year 2008) appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA will use some of that funding for their research facility in France. This USDA research facility is located in France because Mediterranean countries like France have dealt with the Olive Fruit Fly for decades, while California has only been exposed since the late 1990s. This is not uncommon; the USDA has several international research facilities throughout the world, including Australia, China and Argentina.”

So this is not some major pork earmark, but rather a rational applied research issue that could have real economic impact on the counties in California where olive production is big (Napa County’s second largest cash crop.) Adding the Paris, France bit to her statement was, in my opinion, a cheap shot, since it is for research at a USDA facility.

Why do the research funding as an earmark? Well maybe we should ask Governor Palin who sought and received earmarks for Alaskan based research into such issues as Bering Sea King Crab Research and Management and Seal and Steller Sea Lion Biological Research. Getting funding for research through the regular channels (NSF, NIH, NOAA) has gotten pretty tight in recent years and one way to get (or increase) the funding received is to go through direct earmarks from the state and federal levels. Most often these are programs with a demonstrable potential payoff for the local area or the entire nation. That was the case with the red crab studies and with the olive fruit fly study. Each has the potential to advance our knowledge about an organism important to humans, red crab as a food that is hopefully a sustainable fishery and the olive fruit fly as a pest that is hopefully controllable. These (along with the bear DNA, the 3 million dollar projector and many other programs) are not pork, or wasteful earmarks, but are good science with direct application to real world issues for Real Americans™.

It gets worse though

Even scarier though is that Governor Palin used the generic term “fruit flies” which in science research generally refers to the wine or vinegar fruit flies of the Drosophila genus, the most commonly studied probably being Drosophila melanogaster. This genus of flies is the subject of a large number of studies. So many that I would hate to count them without Google Scholar to help! Ironically, every student that takes freshman biology will spend time studying Drosophila, as they were instrumental in the discovery of chromosomes and genes as basis of heredity by Thomas Hunt Morgan.

They are still used today as a model organism for genetics research. They have a short life span (~30 days), with high reproduction rates, so many generations can be produced in a short time. It also has only four chromosomes which was great help in early work. The genome of Drosophila melanogaster was completely sequenced in 2000, only the second animal to have its genome completely sequenced behind another common model organism, the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans.

So why is it scary? Because the fruit fly (Drosophila) has been instrumental in research on many human diseases including Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s, diabetes, oxidative stress, and cancer. But more to the point of Gov. Palin’s speech, Drosophila has been at the center of many studies into autism (a great vid there about autism and fruit fly research), Rett syndrome, and Down syndrome. Yep, the very diseases she is wanting to cure.

“…That’s why we’re going to strengthen NIH. We’re going to work on long-term cures…”

Ok, I like the strengthen NIH part, but since Gov. Palin was ridiculing studies on “fruit flies”, I’m going to assume that was not meant as a way of increasing funding across the board for science. In which case (and even if it was), earmark type funding would still be needed for research programs such as the olive fruit fly study. You want to find cures for diseases, you have to fund the science to research them including using model organisms such as fruit flies. Of course now Gov. Palin has made this election a very personal issue for every single one of those researchers that work with fruit flies. Add them to the bear researchers, science educators and astronomers… It seems like McCain and Palin are trying to drive away the science community for all they’re worth.

I am now scheduled for surgery on the 24th. They called late Thursday to let me know they could squeeze me in. However they were supposed to call back today to let me know what time the surgery is scheduled for. I’ll be calling them early on Monday to see what’s going on. Especially since I want them to at least take an x-ray or CT scan and evaluate it before we go any further!

So yesterday was a big day. I had a 9am meeting with the VA in Hartford for my current education program then a 3pm followup visit from my kidney stone surgery at the VA in West Haven.

Hartford – disappointing but understandable

I knew the first meeting would probably not go the way I wanted it to, but I was still hopeful. I was asking the VA to continue to fund my education for an additional year or two towards graduate school. The answer was a resounding and unhesitating no, even though I will still have 6 months of approved funding, after my spring graduation. Ok, disappointed a little but it was not entirely unexpected, and it is only one of a variety of funding options. I don’t even need to bring funding to a science graduate program, but it is a help. So on to Plan B. I can get some funding from the state as a combat vet, the rest will have to come from traditional TA’ships etc.

Interlude – New Britain Museum of American Art

Since we were up in the Hartford area we went to the New Britain Museum of American Art to see the current exhibition they have of contemporary glass (Expect a separate entry by Tammy and Johann on that!) and grabbed lunch on the way to New Haven for the afternoon meeting. We could have skipped the museum and gone home but, as soon as e got home we would have to turn right around to go New Haven.

West Haven – Incompetence

We got to New Haven 20 minutes early and checked in to the clinic. My appointment was for 3:15, I was finally seen at 4:15, only to find out that there was absolutely no point to my being there! The doctor apologized and said there must have been some mistake.

He also informed me that the surgeon had not even attempted to do the laser lithoscopy they said they were going to try, but rather decided only to do the stent because I had had motrin 5 days earlier. That was NOT what had been described to me and was NOT what I had agreed on. I was told by the doctor that 1 dose of motrin (600mg) 5 days before the surgery would not be a problem. We agreed that they would try laser litho and then stent for recovery. It was possible they would not be able to effectively do the laser then they would schedule a follow up surgery to do the laser in one month, but they would try the laser. If they had thought that the motrin was a problem I would have MUCH rather scheduled the surgery for 2 or 3 days later when it would NOT have been a problem.

Of course I only found that all out yesterday because no doctor bothered to talk to me or my family after the surgery. The recovery room nurses only knew that they had put in the stent. Nothing else. We were then discharged with little information, we assumed that the surgery had proceeded like the plan said – attempt the laser but it wasn’t working so they did the stent. They gave me some ok pain killers, but only enough for a few days (6 days).

While I am not in constant pain anymore, I am in constant discomfort and about half the time when I pee I get excruciating pain. Let me tell you, every time I feel the pain, it feels like a Clydesdale horse is stepping on my testicle. Every time I feel that, I think about the doctor who told me I would just have to suffer and tough it out, when I called to ask about more pain killers.

So, I am waiting for the person who schedules the surgeries to call me and set up a date for the next surgery. I can’t wait.

Of course they don’t do ESWL or any of the other less invasive and reportedly less expensive treatments. They also have no concern that the pain and discomfort are significantly impacting my education (paid for by VA) since I have missed every class at least once, missed two because of yesterdays crap and will have to miss two or three days when they finally do schedule the surgery, and at least one more when they finally remove the stent. All while I am trying to kick ass at school and get into grad programs. I just don’t have time for their incompetence right now.

Unfortunately Chapter 31 educational support does not pay for the university health care, and I am limited to the VA system. No plan B there…

</warning : we now return you to tales of science, family, knitting and animals>

Update

Of course I was not called by the surgical scheduling person. So I called and got an answering machine. Once everything about phones was sorted out it turns out she was never informed to schedule me for a second surgery and the next opening for surgery in at the end of October. Oh joy. I explained the history of my case and explained that the pain and discomfort were a significant negative impact on my schooling. I admit it made go off a bit when she said that she hears these complaints everyday, but there is nothing she can do about it and she wasn’t going to postpone or cancel someone elses cancer surgery just for my kidney stones.

She agreed that the surgery change should never have happened without my express consent, and that it would have been wiser to schedule me for a few days or even a week later when they could have possibly done it all in one surgery. But… still. Right now I am waiting for her to call back and squeeze me in on the 25th since they are doing another case of kidney stones on that day already, “maybe the doctors can squeeze me in afterward.” If not it will be almost November…

Oh and I have an exam in 1 hour that between yesterday and today dealing with idiots I am totally not ready for. Hell.

Anthony at Small Fish, Big Apple has more on the current paper, which for the Japanese whaling has some rather felicitous conclusions.

Tammy and Johann accompanied me to the CT scanner and the orderly asked Johann if he wanted to push me back… Oi! My 8 year old son pushing me a 1/4 mile through the hallways! Johann had a blast and handled it brilliantly. I think he was speeding a bit, but he managed to navigate a few tight spaces and didn’t dump me down the stairs so no complaints. He does love to help, and he has been feeling pretty helpless regarding my condition so I really appreciate that orderly. Of course I think I’ll pass on his suggestion to give Johann the keys to the car!

The ER doc said urology would see me the next day as a stand by patient on his consult request (he called one of the urology docs at home) so off we went once more the next morning for a stand by.

Good news?

Yep, after another 5 hours at the hospital, and two more bureaucratic SNAFU ‘s, I’m scheduled for surgery tomorrow. Hopefully it will be the only surgery needed (last time round, it took two to get the job done).

It’s been a very interesting summer around here. I’m headed into the most important semester of my undergraduate career. The M.Sc. application process, several projects at school, a full class schedule, and the pressure to stay on the dean’s list with a 3.5+ GPA all await me.

I have been working for the Marine Sciences Department (my usual IT job), plus two projects with three different professors. I also went on a one week cruise with one of the same professors on an unrelated project. Mad juggling while dancing on a bed of nails is the phrase that comes to mind, but somehow it’s been exciting and intellectually rewarding. Fortunately, it’s working out well, even with a case of kidney stones thrown in just to clog the gears up!

And that’s where things get a little too interesting. I missed 2 weeks of work in July because of the kidney stones. Being on the VA medical care system has its drawbacks, the worst of which is that they seem to be extremely hesitant to schedule urology appointments or use 21st century diagnostic tests, like ultrasound or CT scans, until you are totally incapacitated.

After that 2 week period (and many, many litres of water) everything seemed better, just dull aches, so I charged right on ahead. I had my physical a few weeks later, but the doctor couldn’t schedule a urology appointment unless I was currently unable to pass a stone. Since the stones seemed to have cleared, the VA said no meds and no appointment. Quite frankly, I was OK with that, since I only wanted to charge ahead with everything else on my plate.

Last Tuesday I had a meeting with one of my bosses so we could review the PSA I compiled for him from some research work he recently did. On the drive in to the meeting the pain came back with a vengeance. I got through the meeting. Fortunately, he loved the PSA and we identified some minor work to do on both the PSA and a longer form video, but it should be no problem to finish.

After the meeting, I told my IT job boss what was up and headed home. I was unable to do much Tuesday or Wednesday. By Thursday night I was doubled over and in so much pain, I actually threw up. The next morning I had had enough and called the local VA medical center. It was early afternoon when the nurse returned my call. My doctor is on vacation and the nurse couldn’t refer me to another doctor, even just to get pain meds, let alone arrange an appointment with urology. All she could offer was for me to drink lots of water and if the pain was unbearable, I should go to the Hartford VA Center emergency room. So, we ate a quick lunch and all three of us headed off to Hartford, an hour and 20 minutes away.

We made it to the Hartford VA center at about 3:30pm only to find out… they don’t have an emergency room there! Only an urgent clinic that closes at 4pm and requires an appointment. To top that off, there is no CT scan or ultrasound equipment there either. All they could do was offer me pain meds and apologetically give me directions to the West Haven Medical Center.  Arggggggghhhh!

Now we had another 40+ minute drive to get to West Haven (part of the city of New Haven), but the traffic was now Friday rush hour in one of the worst traffic corridors of CT. We got to the West Haven VA Hospital at 5 pm. I sat needlessly occupying an emergency room bed on a busy Friday night only to be told by the ER doctor 2.5 hours later that I needed to call my local VA doctor to set up a consult with the urology department.

When I told him calling my local VA doctor is what started us on this wild goose chase, he actually set up the consult for me through him. Now I have to call the urology department on Monday and try to set up an appointment. Oh, he did say the blood work showed no kidney infection. The urinalysis results hadn’t come back yet. But those tests had just been run on me for my physical. He did give me Motrin for the pain with the warning that it exacerbates bleeding (Yep, it sure does…don’t ask!) and can cause kidney damage in large doses. Great!

We finally got home at 10pm. We drove all over CT (180+ miles) and used 9 gallons of gas (~$40), along with having to eat dinner on the road.  The staff at both the Hartford and the New Haven medical centers were extremely professional and compassionate, but still, it was an absolutely miserable way to spend the day.

What’s worse is that I am still not measurably better off for all the time and expense. Hopefully on Monday I will have an appointment for the very near future with urology back in New Haven, but I’m not counting on that. Last time I needed a consult like that, it took over two months to get it set up.

I can’t miss any more work. I have a meeting with one boss Monday morning for final approval of the videos before he leaves for his meeting overseas. I have a meeting with another boss later that morning about a research project and possible grad school opportunities. But I can’t afford to overdo it or I’m flat on my back again.

</rant>

There are a couple of posts in the works for Eclectic Echoes, including an up beat post about the Art Festival,  Jr. scientist and hopefully more garden news.