Wicker's ocean monitoring bill

JACKSON, Miss. - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) recently introduced legislation in Congress to reauthorize and provide support to the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System. IOOS provides scientists and researchers with vital information about the nation’s coasts and oceans. Wicker’s proposal, titled “Coordinated Ocean Monitoring and Research Act,” is co-sponsored by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). The program helps improve weather forecasting, energy production, and marine navigation safety. “Mississippi’s Gulf Coast particularly benefits from the network’s important collection of coastal hazards and fisheries data,” he said. Wicker’s bill would also ensure state university research teams are equipped to continue conducting critical scientific studies. More than 50 percent of the marine data now assembled and disseminated by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Data Buoy Center – located in Bay Saint Louis, Miss. - is from non-federal sources. Ocean modeling teams based at Stennis Space Center – Navy, Gulf Coast OOS, Southern Mississippi, Mississippi State, and NOAA - coordinate to develop the best physical and ecosystem models on the Gulf Coast. National Weather Service uses the Navy model results for their public safety hurricane forecasts. (Mississippi News Now 07/30/15)