News from Across the American Shoreline

The University Press of Mississippi, publisher of the Third Coast Book Series, brings to the American shoreline and the people who live, work, recreate, and make a living there -- an entirely new perspective on the issues all coastal communities face. And, listen to the American Sdhlreloine Podcast with the publisher and four of the book authors. It's a great show (See the link at the bottom of the story).

As federal help came in following Hurricane Matthew to restore part of the coastline, St. Johns County dedicated staff to watching over new beach projects full time.

Leaked report for world’s major fossil fuel financier says Earth is on unsustainable trajectory

Federal officials got an earful of complaints Wednesday night from scores of New Hampshire communities over a plan to further reduce nitrogen in one of the largest estuaries in the Northeast.

As experts warn that the world is running out of time to head off severe climate change, discussions of what the U.S. should do about it are split into opposing camps. The scientific-environmental perspective says global warming will cause the planet severe harm without action to slow fossil fuel burning. Those who reject mainstream climate science insist either that warming is not occurring or that it’s not clear human actions are driving it.

New scientific findings released today in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications, show that expansion Aof the Pacific Remote Islands and Papahanaumokuakea marine national monuments did not cause overall economic harm to the Hawaii-based longline tuna fishing fleet.

A series of coastal engineering projects aimed at saving Waikiki Beach is underway, and one of the projects that kicked off three months ago is performing well so far.

Flooding is the costliest natural disaster, according to environmental economist Katherine Zipp, assistant professor of environmental and resource economics and a faculty member in the Institutes of Energy and the Environment, at Penn State. She is part of a team that is studying how floodplain damages affect long-term housing development in high flood-risk areas. This includes a model that takes into consideration climate change and how that could impact flooding.

Some homeowners are moving back from water; millions in damage across region

OPEN HOUSE FOR DOWNTOWN RESILIENCY

As a $14.3 million beach renourishment project reaches the halfway mark, the town of Pawleys Island is considering an agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers that will help fund future projects. But that will almost certainly require the town to condemn easements for that work from property owners on the island’s south end, according to the town administrator

The Florida Legislature is expected to act soon on whether to overturn a controversial 2018 law that prohibits the public from setting foot on the dry sand of beaches that abut private property in Walton County in the Panhandle.

A 12-foot, 4-inch adult male Great White shark that weighs 1,000 pounds, was tracked swimming off of Canaveral National Seashore in Florida on Tuesday, February 18, 2020.

Like many Orange County cities, Newport Beach likes to tout its business-friendly atmosphere. When push comes to shove, however, officials there behave in ways similar to California’s most regulation-loving communities. The best example involves short-term rentals, where people rent homes to vacationers using Airbnb or other platforms.

Greentown Labs, a cleantech incubator in North America, and Vineyard Wind, the developer of a utility-scale offshore wind project in the Northeast United States, have forged a partnership to run a Greentown Launch accelerator program focused on offshore wind innovations.

Nearly a month after hundreds of people filled the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City, Md., to comment on changes in plans for two wind-farm projects off the Delmarva coast, Maryland’s Public Service Commission has agreed to hold new hearings on the projects.

Anglers can expect another ho-hum year for spring and summer chinook returning to the Snake River and its tributaries, according to a forecast from a group of state, tribal and federal fisheries managers.

The total fish and other aquatic biological resources catch by fisheries of Ukraine in 2019 grew by 9.7% compared with 2018, to 97,200 tonnes.

In the new age of sustainability, there are plenty of companies pledging to offset emissions in the race for net zero. While certainly an improvement over past years when a pledge to do 10% better was the standard, the trend has triggered skepticism that greenwashing is really what’s at work.

Scientists studying sperm whales have discovered earthquakes affect their ability to find food for at least a year. The research is among the first to examine the impact of a large earthquake on a population of marine mammals, and offers new insight into how top predators such as sperm whales react and adapt to a large-scale natural disturbance.

That hurricanes can create sudden and dramatic changes to the landscape is obvious to anyone who lives along the Gulf of Mexico's coast. They are powerful, high-energy destructive forces that can flood homes and fell trees, and can leave a lasting impression on all those affected by them; however, the mark hurricanes leave on unpopulated areas, such as Florida's Everglades National Park, have been less known until now. In a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS, researchers from different universities, including LSU, examined how Hurricanes Wilma in 2015 and Irma in 2017 fertilized the Florida Coastal Everglades, paradoxically facilitating mangrove wetlands recovery.

Media are invited to preview a NASA airborne science campaign to help improve weather and climate predictions at 9 a.m. EST Tuesday, Feb. 25, at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The study is the second of five new major NASA airborne science studies to take to the field in 2020.

Studies of the health hazards of toxic algae blooms have focused largely on the danger of direct contact with contaminated water in lakes, rivers and the ocean. Now a new study shows that even airborne exposure to the bacteria from a toxic bloom could also pose a risk.

‘Think you know Daytona Beach?’ In a workshop session, board members of the Halifax Area Advertising Authority considered the fate of Wide. Open. Fun. tourism campaign and the agency behind it.

There’s real power in getting the ‘people people’ in coastal management into one room, and this year, more than 300 of them attended the fifth biennial Social Coast Forum in Charleston, South Carolina. “These are the folks who know that social science—understanding how people live, work, and play on the coasts—is as critical as knowing the salinity gradient in an estuary or the erosion rate of the shoreline,” says Rebecca Roth, president of NERRA.

The population of whale sharks, one of the endangered migratory species, has declined by 63 per cent in last 75 years in the Indo-Pacific region, a nature conservation body has said while urging the government to intensify steps and train enforcement agencies to conserve the species.

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that some of the claims raised by South Carolina in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over seismic tests for oil and gas deposits in Atlantic waters may proceed, but dismissed four others.

The town of Fairfield is moving forward with a project that aims to better protect its wastewater treatment plant from coastal flooding from large storms and sea level rise.

Angry waves from Lake Erie have slammed Hoover Beach over the years, but something different happened after last Halloween's storm: Residents came up with a new plan to fight back. It involves a little-known federal program and an ambitious plan to build a structure in the lake that could protect the shoreline.

Where are the engineers? Whenever climate change comes up we hear from ecologists, activists and the odd scientist. But engineers? The very people we need to solve problems seem to be shut away in a box while school kids and dopey vegan campaigners are handed a megaphone with which to tell us the planet is going to die unless humans go back to pre-industrial poverty.

The $28.2 million Bogue Banks beach nourishment project got off to a fast start this week, as sand was piped to and spread from the Circle development district to the 300 block of Ocean Ridge Road as of Friday morning.

The Vilano Beach renourishment has been greenlighted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which hopes for construction to start this fall.

In 30 years, beach replenishment has become routine. Once big news, the sight of an offshore dredge pumping sand from Corson’s Inlet onto beaches in Strathmere and Ocean City this winter hardly raised an eyebrow among locals, much less drawing crowds to watch the progress, as an Ocean City beach project did in the 1990s.

Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi researchers have been awarded nearly $2 million in Texas Coastal Management Plan grants to study issues affecting the water quality of Baffin Bay, Texas; to continue a popular oyster reef restoration, outreach, and citizen science project; and to model the impacts of sea level rise and storm surge on the Texas Coast.

Governor Ralph Northam has announced a plan to protect migratory birds.

In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Julia Nesheiwat, a former professor and State Department official who is currently serving as Florida’s first chief resilience officer. Nesheiwat elaborates on the unique challenges Florida faces, as a sprawling, populous state with many coastal communities potentially imperiled by climate change. Discussing the diverse responsibilities of her role, Nesheiwat explains how she works alongside leaders from government, academia, and the private sector to devise proactive solutions to climate challenges and encourage collaboration across the whole state.

Boston: Who Should Pay For The Big Solutions?

It seemed innocuous enough: a gaggle of homeowners in the idyllic East Hampton hamlet of Wainscott circulated a petition opposing a key aspect of the state’s first offshore wind project — the landing spot for a transmission cable.

While waves and record high water levels pound away at shoreline properties, state lawmakers are trying to pound away on new laws to protect property.

Using the latest data available, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission predicts devastating impacts of rising seas to the Bay Area - on housing, transportation, economy and jobs.

An ambitious project to improve the management of marine resources across regional and international borders is underway in Europe and all over the world.

The days are numbered for the crossover at Jekyll Island’s Corsair Beach Park.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (Marad) announced Friday that it has awarded more than $280 million in discretionary grant funding through the new Port Infrastructure Development Program. The funding is designed to improve port facilities at or near coastal seaports.

Danish energy giant Orsted has filed an update to the construction and operation plan for its proposed South Fork wind farm, amid doubts by opponents and a state lawmaker that it will hit its contracted December 2022 completion date.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will offer over 78 million acres for a region-wide lease sale scheduled for March 18, 2020, as part of President Trump’s America First Offshore Energy Strategy.

The Conservation Law Foundation petitioned the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Thursday morning to prohibit fishing of Atlantic cod until such time as the federal agency implements measures that will end overfishing.

Wildlife photographers and a SeaWorld rescue team were concerned about a whale seen tangled in fishing nets and ropes as it made its way up the coast from San Diego last weekend

Georgetown County could issue a permit this week for construction of a house on a newly-created oceanfront lot in North Litchfield.

A row has erupted over the plans to increase the parking charge on two popular Merseyside beaches.

Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development George Payne has offered Government suggestions to address concerns about beachfront property developers blocking beach access to Barbadians, including leasing rather than selling lands to investors and retaining control of beaches.

Opponents are happy town leaders who voted against the project are sticking to their decision.

The results of a collaborative research project led by a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo have been published as a case study in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, a website where the public can find information and tools to understand and address climate risks. The case study also has been published regionally on the Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment website.

In some of my recent articles, I talked about my “Book Club,” my library of books on fish, fishing, sea critters, techniques and such, both factual and fiction and one basically a memoir that I recently read.

They are some of Scotland’s furthest-flung outposts, windswept and timeless where history can run as deep as the surging waters that surround them.

Some Manasota Key residents couldn’t contain their excitement over the weekend.

Over seven years after Superstorm Sandy devastated New York City’s coastal neighborhoods, outer borough coastal communities are still struggling to recover.

February is traditionally downtime for beach towns, but each year the shoreline along some stretches of North Carolina’s central and southern coast is anything but quiet as crews work around the clock to pump millions of cubic yards of sand in a never-ending fight against erosion.

Florida Rep. Chris Sprowls, a Republican, declared it so in September 2019 at a speech designating him the next speaker of the House: “We need to stop being afraid of words like ‘climate change’ and ‘sea level rise.’” And Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has used the term repeatedly since his campaign for the job in 2018, even saying it three times in a news release that announced a new statewide job, chief resilience officer, tasked with preparing Florida for sea level rise.

The vacation rental platform collects the bed tax in 44 Florida counties.

Scientists from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Ocean Sciences Division are optimizing the placement of ocean gliders and the usage of glider data to improve the Navy’s ability to predict ocean conditions.

A two-decades-long plan to bring more sand to San Clemente’s depleted shoreline has received a $505,000 boost from the federal government.

Experts say the big one is coming to the Pacific Northwest: a massive earthquake that will cause buildings and bridges to collapse and unleash a tsunami that will devastate the coast.

A shocking video showing hundreds of thousands of "cooked" mussels has sparked fears for mollusks' future in New Zealand.

Homes and businesses will be told to accept major floods are inevitable under radical policy shift

The fearless crew of NOAA’s plane Kermit were busy hunting down hurricanes in the North Atlantic, when they were dazzled by a bout of St. Elmo’s fire. Thankfully, the cameras were rolling and captured the awe-inspiring sight.

A top ten of record-breaking US weather events of the last decade reveals Hurricane Harvey is the most extreme of the decade, and similar others were among the costliest and deadliest on record, according to magazine Weatherwise.

An Oregon land use policy creates a large economic value for some private homeowners who are allowed to protect their shoreline against erosion, according to a new Oregon State University study.

The destructive power of a hurricane appears to do plenty of good for mangroves in the Florida Everglades.

Curt Spalding, the former EPA regional director who’s now at Brown, researches how communities can respond to climate change

Cassiopea jellyfish make up for their lack of tentacles by releasing gooey clouds full of autopiloted stingers.

Many people wonder how the excess CO2 is affecting the planet and its atmosphere. Charles Amsler, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, continues to search for these answers as he dives into the depths of the Antarctic Ocean to closely examine ocean acidification.

Sitting on his traditional canoe on the Vembanad lake, fisher A. K. Sailan believes that the gods have finally started smiling down on him. While on the eco-sensitive lake, in close proximity of Nediyathurthu Island, he points to the spots where he and fifty-six other fishers of his neighbourhood had installed licensed stake nets for traditional fishing.

UC San Diego - University of Haifa partnership receives $1.3M from Koret Foundation to support collaboration on marine archaeology research.

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) has been awarded a $500,000 grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to lead a coalition of scientists from around the country to study the impact of storms, sea-level rise, and climate change on estuaries and bays.

About 20 percent of Ohio’s 312 miles of Lake Erie shoreline is publicly accessible, according to the most recent Ohio Department of Natural Resources survey. That’s up 1 percent from the last assessment in 2015.

According to state officials the Massey’s Ditch dredging project is expected to be completed soon, but at a cost approximately 20 percent higher than the original base bid.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), in partnership with the City of Virginia Beach, has awarded a contract to the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock, Ltd. to conduct a beach renourishment effort along the Sandbridge Beach oceanfront.

For those of you who aren’t aware, permitting for construction of new developments or renovation of existing structures is a huge problem on Hawaii Island. It has been recognized by the business community as a major barrier to economic development and working toward improvement of the permitting process is one of the three top priority areas for the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce. For those of you who are aware and have been following this issue, you’ve now got something new to think about.

Biologists are recruiting citizen scientist volunteers to locate and count spawning smelt.

The battle to retain the natural beauty of Smith Cove and keep the place accessible to locals is one of several ongoing beach access fights the public is now engaged in. As access to the famous Seven Mile Beach for ordinary people has virtually disappeared, a group of women from West Bay, who believe they have the law on their side, are locked in two legal battles, one with government and, as can now be revealed, another with Dart. But with legal aid denied for that fight, the case is in trouble.

Transocean said last Friday that, since its last fleet status report in October 2019, the company had added approximately $366 million in contract backlog, bringing its total backlog to $10.2 billion.

Perth and most of Western Australia is synonymous with our magnificent coastline.

A "ghost" cargo ship has washed up off the coast of County Cork, Ireland, brought in by the bad weather that lashed Europe in Storm Dennis.

Each week, News 3 is taking the time to break down the local impacts of news coming from the nation’s capital.

If climate scientists have got their predictions right, Auckland will be progressively hit by more extreme weather, including more frequent and possibly more severe droughts, floods and damaging winds. Coastal storm surges will damage coastal property, beaches, roads and affect our biodiversity. Sea levels could rise by more than a metre in the next 100 years.

Flying somewhere over the planet, there's a plane equipped with research-grade, double-sided tape on the outside of its hull. Each time the pilot lands the plane, he removes the tape, seals it in a package, and replaces it with a new one before he takes off again. He then mails the package to Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, care of Dimitri Deheyn, Associate Researcher.

In the UK, 675,000 homes lost electricity because of the windstorm, as well as a further 10,000 homes in Ireland.

Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher says the National Marine Fisheries Service didn't give the state's plan credit for all of its whale protections.

Local context is the key to best practices for bottom trawl fishing.

Port of Port Townsend commissioners to consider proposal

Ever-increasing numbers of South Carolinians are at risk for flooding impacts. S.C. conservationists were encouraged when Gov. Henry McMaster created the Floodwater Commission to identify solutions for our flooding problems.

Town taps grant that’s aimed at helping R.I. communities cope with climate change

Awaroa Beach was bought by New Zealanders through a crowd funding campaign. The Beach sits in the middle of the Abel Tasman National Park. The park is categorised as one of the countries great walks, and is popular with tourists over the warmer months.

After years of being a holdout on the issue, Currituck County this spring will begin a three-year study to determine if Currituck Banks beaches need nourishment — a decision that some say is long overdue.

The clustering of great white sharks off the Carolinas coast is growing more pronounced and mysterious, based on satellite tracking data shared Saturday on social media.

Sea Marsh Way is a short stretch of land located in and near Mattapoisett’s coastline nestled between Pine Island and Angelica Point. A small lot of land is being considered for development by owner Constance O. Pallatroni Living Trust, prompting the need to confirm the property is not, in fact, barrier beach.

AVERAGE BARGE LOADS WILL INCREASE FROM 2.4 MILLION BUSHELS OF SOYBEANS TO 2.9 MILLION, THE SOY TRANSPORTATION COALITION ESTIMATES.

New grants will provide critical infrastructure support

Coastal Virginia, sitting at the mouth of the third largest estuary in the world, is uniquely positioned to affect the environment and also poised to be a poster child for resiliency.

The Miami project is one of six grant winners located within an opportunity zone