Scott Gudes came out for the Honolulu reception on October 10th at the National Weather Service Forecast Office. It was a festive occasion with all the line offices represented but OAR. Many people do not know that Hawaii has a large contingent of NOAA employees, right after Washington, D.C., Boulder, and Seattle. We have 33 people with 30 years of service and 6 with 39 years or more--one, a retired annuitant, has 55 years of service with NOAA!!

The National Weather Service has the most employees and they work out of 13 offices in the Pacific, including the Central Pacific Hurricane Center/Honolulu Forecast Office; Weather Offices in Hilo and Lihue; the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center; and offices in Guam, Micronesia, Palau, and American Samoa (the only U.S. weather office south of the Equator). OAR runs the Mauna Loa Laboratory on the Big Island. NMFS has two offices in Honolulu--the Honolulu Fisheries Laboratory and the Pacific Islands Area Office and some research facilities at Sand Point. The NOAA Corps Ports Office is located in Honolulu. The NOS Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary is headquartered on Maui and has an office in Honolulu. NESDIS maintains a liaison office at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. NOAA supports many other programs and research in Hawaii including the University of Hawaii Sea Grant Program, Joint Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Research, the National UnderSea Research Program, the Hawaii Coastal Zone Management Program, Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the Oceanic Institute. In Hawaii, NOAA is leading the research on green sea turtles, Hawaiian monk seals, humpback whales, pelagic fisheries, marine debris, coral reefs, and CO2.

Congratulations NOAA and ALOHA!