News from Across the American Shoreline

United Kingdom - Nearly two million cubic metres of sand are being shifted to a stretch of eroding Norfolk coastline in a radical plan to save it from the sea.

New research identifies a perfect storm of warming waters and reduced food to blame in the collapse of the once lucrative jumbo squid fishery off Baja California.

Due to its vast size and depth, the deep-pelagic ocean (200 meters and below) helps maintain the health of the planet by playing a role in carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling and waste absorption, and even supports the production of economically valuable fisheries.

A landmark 30-year study of ailing coral in the Florida Keys shows nutrient-supercharged water from as far north as Orlando is contributing to the death of an ancient ecosystem that evolved to thrive in a fertilizer-free environment.

Long before rising seas permanently swamp homes, millions of Americans living in coastal communities will likely face more frequent and disruptive high-tide flooding — and the effects will ripple through the local economy.

Communities across Florida are already grappling with aging septic tanks, which leak into groundwater and are considered a leading cause of toxic algae blooms. As sea level rise is expected to worsen that situation, the state and cities are beginning to tackle the expensive task of converting septic systems to sewer or newer septic technologies.

Under Florida case law, a seller of a home must disclose to the buyer all known facts that materially affect the value of the property and that are not readily observable or known to the buyer.

The Hawaiian Electric Companies announced Wednesday its plans to put out requests for proposals for its largest and most ambitious push for renewable energy ever.

New York has signed the biggest-ever deals for offshore wind power in U.S. history, a key part of the state’s plan to get all of its power from emissions-free sources by 2040.

"Our bill ensures that these increased revenues will be committed to projects that restore the coast, protect our coastal communities from hurricanes and other disaster and, ultimately, reduce our nation’s outrageous disaster response costs." Cong. Garret Graves. And, catch Cong. Graves on ASPN's Capitol Beach Podcast with Derek Brockbank.

The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) has said that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will offer 77.8 million acres for a region-wide lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico scheduled for August 21, 2019.

Marine sediments tell the history of an environment, including oil spills. By "reading" sediments from the past century, a research team has now determined how much oil hydrocarbon is accumulated in different vegetated coastal habitats of the Arabian Gulf and the significance of this for environmental management.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), through its Beach Monitoring Program, continues to maintain water contact warnings across the Mississippi Gulf Coast for all 21 sampling stations.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has deployed four underwater gliders off the coast of Puerto Rico.

For the third time in five years, a sea turtle nesting record at Cape Hatteras National Seashore (Seashore) has been broken.

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - The Bonnet Carre Spillway could be closed within a week, said marine officials on Tuesday, but the impacts could last for months.

California - Looming decisions by state and federal agencies involving Del Mar prompted lengthy discussions but no actions by the City Council on Monday night, July 15.

The de Blasio administration has a plan to shore up the Lower East Side’s defenses against rising seawaters. It will also rebuild the largest park in Lower Manhattan.

The impacts of climate change, including rising seas and extreme weather events, are quickly emerging as formidable challenges for the real estate industry and our cities.

The NBC2 Investigators found out exclusively that Southwest Florida leaders are putting aside political differences to work together on environmental issues.

Beaches along the Mississippi Gulf Coast remain closed because of toxic bacteria detected before Barry blew ashore.

Study is world's longest record of reactive nutrients, algae concentrations for coral reefs

Orion Group Holdings, Inc. (ORN) announced yesterday it has won a contract worth up to $52 million for dredging services in Texas.

Totals rose over May 2018, but short-term rentals on Anna Maria Island weren’t as busy in May as during the spring break months of March and April.

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WSAV) – The beach on Tybee Island is in line for a historic face-lift.

In what has become a deeply unwelcome summertime tradition, Floridians are once again finding their waterways befouled with blue-green algae.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been taking water from Florida's polluted Lake Okeechobee and releasing it among other bodies of water in the state.

Counties in five Gulf Coast states affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill can apply for eligible construction and real property acquisition activities under the RESTORE Act.

Union members: Regs would hurt Maine lobstermen

Peak landings in Alaska's prolific Bristol Bay fishery were reached July 8 with some 2.55 million sockeye caught that day alone. But strong catches continue to come in, according to data from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and bay's harvest now looks like it will see another 14m sockeye above the 26.1m harvest level that biologists first predicted.

Hurricane Barry largely spared New Orleans, but it underscored that climate change brings complex impacts and hard choices.

In 2015, a nesting record of 289 nests was set, followed by a new record in 2016 when 325 sea turtle nests were found on Seashore beaches.

A landmark 30-year study of ailing coral in the Florida Keys shows nutrient-supercharged water from as far north as Orlando is contributing to the death of an ancient ecosystem that evolved to thrive in a fertilizer-free environment.

The Port of New Orleans was reopened to river traffic early July 14 after a two-day closure surrounding the arrival of Hurricane Barry, which weakened immediately into a tropical storm upon landfall, but still packed 70 mph winds. Numerous highways and rail service locations remain closed as of July 15.

The Honolulu District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Small Business Office (SBO) was one of several government agencies looking to discuss contracting opportunities to small businesses looking to start or expand opportunities as a government contractor June 18, 2019, at the 17th Annual Hawaii Small Business Forum held at the Honolulu Country Club.

Anyone who doubts that climate change could deliver a nasty shock to Michigan's economy need only take a stroll along the Detroit riverfront these days.

NANTUCKET — Efforts to fight erosion on the Sankaty Bluff are headed to court. The Sconset Beach Preservation Fund has appealed the Conservation Commission’s decision to deny expansion of an erosion-control project at the base of the bluff. The fund’s leaders have appealed to both the state Department of Environmental Protection and Nantucket Superior Court.

Check out the newest National Marine Sanctuary

Florida’s water and environment won big in the 2019 budget recently passed by the state legislature and enacted by Governor Ron DeSantis.

About 60.2M Live in Areas Most Vulnerable to Hurricanes

After centuries of fighting back water in a low-lying nation, the Dutch have become the world leaders in flood control. And their expertise is helping Texas design what would become the nation’s most ambitious — and expensive — coastal barrier.

PORTAGE — State Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, will try again next year to insert specific protections in Indiana law for everything Hoosiers have enjoyed doing at their Lake Michigan beaches for more than a century.

New York City - The city unveiled last week an updated design for its plan to protect an area stretching from the Lower East Side to East 25th Street from flooding. The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) presented on Thursday its preliminary design for the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR) to Community Board 3, as Curbed NY reported.

Tybee Island, Georgia - Sunny day flooding, most evident locally on U.S. 80 near Fort Pulaski, is getting more frequent in coastal communities nationally as sea level rises, according to a report issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday.

Shrimpers say changes are a good sign but not enough

In recent years, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Marine Minerals Program (MMP) has seen an increase in both the number of requests and volume of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) sediment for coastal restoration projects. This is largely driven by diminishing resources in state waters, the frequency and magnitude of storms along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, and new infrastructure projects.

By 2025, New York's Staten Island will be fortified by a towering seawall running 5.3 miles along the coast, an engineering feat designed to ward off a growing threat.

Indian River County is planning to repair beaches from just north of Tracking Station Park south to the Riomar Golf Course. The section was damaged by hurricanes Matthew and Irma. In this photo, taken Jan. 6, 2017, the county prepared to close Tracking Station Park for dune repairs.

Barry, now a tropical depression, continues moving slowly north through Arkansas and rainfall and flooding remains a concern. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over the south central United States yesterday, July 14 and captured a visible image of then Tropical Storm Barry.

A team of international researchers led by La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne have, for the first time worldwide, applied marine geology techniques at an ancient harbour archaeological site to uncover ancient harbour technologies of the first centuries AD.

Cuba enacted new fisheries legislation over the weekend that represents its first national change since 1996 and a major shift in current fisheries policy, helping to ensure coordinated management of marine resources between Cuba and other countries in the region, including the United States, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) reports.

Off St. Thomas, the disease is moving faster and killing more corals than any disease before

Oceano Dunes on California’s central coast will remain open to off-road vehicles for at least another year.

Australian researchers are exploring ways to create sustainable maritime industries, while also keeping our oceans healthy. Natalie Parletta reports.

Bethel-based KYUK reports water temperatures near the town broke into the low 70s earlier this week. That’s the highest river temperature ever recorded there.

New Delhi/ Kochi: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected all four review peititions filed by the flat builders in Maradu in Kerala's Ernakulam district. This means around 350 flats, which violated the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules, have to be razed immediately.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Exactly defining public access along beaches — and other areas around Rhode Island’s coast — is a complex undertaking requiring some serious study, said Virginia Lee, who has studied the issue and is an author of guides to public access to shorefront areas.

The Edgartown conservation commission, in a 5-1 vote, has denied a permit for cables that would pass through the Muskeget Channel.

Coastal cities are rapidly losing freeboard – the space between infrastructure and the ocean — as high-tide flooding is becoming a chronic rather than an infrequent problem.

It’s only a matter of time before New Jersey’s coastal regions have to face the harsh reality that sea levels are rising, according to New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, which is projecting significant increases only 10 years from now.

A country that refuses to confront these changes, that shrugs off the planning and preparation needed, and certainly does not have the desire — or, at this moment, the capacity — to absorb those costs is making a choice to put millions of its residents in harm’s way.

“The major cause of record, recent flooding is entirely man-made - the dramatic constriction of our large rivers by oversized levees, flood plain development and structural narrowing for barge traffic,” said Robert Criss, professor emeritus with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

A Colombian judge on Friday requested the arrest and extradition of a US engineering executive from Chicago Bridge & Iron for his alleged role in what the prosecution calls the “biggest corruption scandal in history.”

Vineyard Wind plans to build its 800-megawatt project (in yellow) 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard.

Deep sea sediments are notoriously nutrient poor, however, microbes belonging to the Archaea group of unicellular microorganisms have been efficiently scavenging dead cells, and play an important role in the geochemical carbon and nitrogen cycles of the ecosystem, researchers have found.

St. Louis, MO - July 9, 2019 - The United Soybean Board’s commitment to improve market conditions for farmers hits a new bottom — the Mississippi River bottom.

The move to dredge the port again was prompted when harbor pilots began complaining that the super ships now sailing through an expanded Panama Canal were having trouble turning.

The $250,000 of funding approved by the city commission will go towards the first phase of the project – planning and design.

ESSEX, MASSACHUSETTS — Should North Shore communities consider buying their own regional dredging equipment or outsource the work to a private company?

ENGLEWOOD — Damian Ochab is happy Sarasota County is joining Charlotte County in its effort to nourish the eroded shoreline along Manasota Key.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. —The challenge to private beach owners wanting to stop public access to their land is far from over, says Scott Keeley, who organized a protest drawing more than 200 supporters to step over the Charlestown-South Kingstown line into the sand of exclusive beaches.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (CN) – Elected officials from cities and counties up and down coastal California agreed with state officials that sea level rise as a result of climate change is “happening now.”

Blue-green algae blooms have been growing more frequent, both in Florida and elsewhere in the United States. Mississippi just closed all 21 of its beaches because of a bloom.

The Army Corps of Engineers is reviewing the cost-benefit ratio of a Pawleys Island beach renourishment project, raising concern among town officials that the project will be delayed another year.

Some encroachments reach 80 feet into the sand ..

NOAA announces $950,000 in funding for habitat restoration in six Habitat Focus Areas.

On July 1, one year after a state law negated Walton County’s customary use beach ordinance, residents and visitors gathered on local beaches to join hands in support of customary use.

WALTON COUNTY — The latest twist in Walton County’s tumultuous customary use battle has some beach property owners threatening to seek legal sanctions against the county’s attorneys for attempting to claim, as public, land that in years past had been specifically declared to be private.

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - Mexico Beach is getting some much-needed assistance with a beach renourishment project thanks to the Bay County Tourist Development Council.

Two separate efforts explore options

HB 3309 overturns a 1995 ban that kept schools, hospitals, and police and fire stations from being built in tsunami zones.

A hurricane warning has been issued for parts of the Louisiana coast ahead of Tropical Storm Barry's arrival.

MOUNT PLEASANT, South Carolina — New limits and regulations on short-term rentals, such as those listed with Airbnb and Vrbo, are on track to begin in August in South Carolina’s fourth-largest city.

When it comes to coastal development, a clash of interests is almost always expected.

Global warming is causing mass migrations around the world. In New York, it's forcing people from their homes in quieter ways.

South Carolina environmental officials have dealt a blow to one of the companies wanting federal approval to explore for oil and gas off the state’s coast in the face of widespread opposition.

Shore season is in full swing. With the arrival of summer, many Philadelphians leave the city and spend their time in towns up and down the South Jersey coast.

This new report from NOAA shows that New Jersey is among the most vulnerable states in the nation to impacts from sea level rise and climate change.

When it becomes regulated, Texas oyster farming will be a huge economic boost. "We're talking in terms of thousands of jobs really and millions of dollars of impacts easily."

Jul. 11--PANAMA CITY -- The air in the heart of Florida's Panhandle has felt heavy for days, weighed down by Southern humidity and the hazy heat of summer. Familiar thunderstorms, bringing brief downpours, have done little to loosen its grip.

As surely as the seasons, the water will come, a silent surge that in 30 years could mean up to 55 days annually where South Florida streets become streams and storm grates bubble backwards, according to a new report released Wednesday.

The public, scientists, local authorities and industry are invited to give their views on urgent questions and inform future policies

GULFPORT, Miss. — Toxic bacteria are keeping swimmers out of the water on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and it will be weeks before financial information shows whether beach closures are hurting the local economy.

These are the riskiest states for extreme weather in America, according to forecast data by NOAA.

An advisory for a portion of Panama City Beach remains in place due elevated levels of bacteria.

If you thought the administration of newly elected Alaska governor Mike Dunleavy would use the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) invitation for comments on its draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Pebble Mine to offer up an unconditional love letter on behalf of the massive copper, gold and molybdenum open pit mine in Bristol Bay, think again.

That’s been made clear over the past couple of weeks as algal blooms, freshwater intrusion, seafood industry damages and even infestations of alligators have descended upon southeastern Louisiana. The effects of the Bonnet Carre opening have been enough to attract the attention of Louisiana’s congressional delegation.

For those in the drinking water and wastewater treatment space, the climbing temperatures in summer months can bring with them an obstacle that seems to get worse every year — harmful algal blooms. Illustrating this aggravation is the presence of a massive bloom now approaching Florida that is reportedly the largest in world history.