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The National Ocean Service (NOS), a line office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is the nation's ocean and coastal agency. Our activities span a broad range that includes charting our nation's coastline; defining the National Spatial Reference System; providing the national network of coastal tide and water level sensors; serving as the lead federal agency of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System; administering the Coastal Zone Management Program; providing the scientific foundation and socioeconomic information to local, state, and regional decision makers to adapt to the impacts of coastal hazards and climate change; serving as the authoritative resource for science related to debris, oil, and chemical spills; managing marine sanctuaries; and supporting the management of estuarine research reserves, coral reefs, and marine protected areas. Today, our coasts and coastal communities face increasingly significant impacts of higher intensity coastal storms; changing sea levels and Great Lakes levels; increased coastal development; increased demand on natural resources and infrastructure; and increased demands on our marine transportation system. In response to these issues, NOS aligns its activities along three priorities: (1) supporting coastal resilience; (2) advancing coastal intelligence; and (3) promoting place-based conservation. NOS relies on coastal observations and data products to carry out our mission. Characteristics of future coastal observations include lower cost coupled with greater efficiency, diverse platforms, multiuse data collection, and crowdsourcing. Data products will need to be increasingly geographically tailored; result from a greater degree of coordination and integration; and result in greater data access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a paucity of data in the published literature on the ecological and economic impacts of derelict fishing traps (DFTs) in coastal ecosystems. We synthesized results from seven NOAA-funded trap fisheries studies around the United States and determined that DFT-caused losses to habitat and harvestable annual catch are pervasive, persistent, and largely preventable. Based on this synthesis, we identified key gaps to fill in order to better manage and prevent DFTs. We conclude with suggestions for developing a U.S. DFT management strategy including: (1) targeting studies to estimate mortality of fishery stocks, (2) assessing the economic impacts of DFTs on fisheries, (3) collaborating with the fishing industry to develop solutions to ghost fishing, and (4) examining the regional context and challenges resulting in DFTs to find effective policy solutions to manage, reduce, and prevent gear loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on Mexican immigrants in the U.S. The causes of emigration to the U.S. are usually classified by writers in the social science field according to the following general types: Economic, educational, political, religious, and social. The underlying forces which stimulate Mexican male workers to migrate to the United States are evidently economic. The simple truth is that the vast majority of these workers come to find work, or to do work already found for them. Such conclusions are suggested by the close relationship found to exist between economic conditions in the Southwest U.S. and the extent of Mexican immigration. In 1907 the demand for laborers had become evident in the Southwest. The following year, instead of a reduction in Mexican immigration to correspond with the general decrease, there was an increase of more than 500 per cent. In 1909, Mexican immigration was about 1500 per cent more than in 1907. The reports of organizations issuing business statistics indicate a tendency for industrial activities in the Southwest U.S. to reach higher percentages of the total for the country as a whole.