News from Across the American Shoreline

July 6, 2020 – California Sea Grant is pleased to announce six new research projects aimed at restoring California’s kelp forests.

CREOLE, La. (KPLC) - At Rutherford Beach, you can often find roped off area to protect wildlife, but some conservationists say that the holiday weekend festivities may have damaged these areas.

It was the muddy water that caught Stefan Talke’s eye.

As global climate change begins to make a home in the United States in the form of rising seas, punishing storms, and more intense rainfall, the federal government underestimates the flood risk for 170,102 households and properties in Oregon, a wide-ranging scientific analysis released Monday found.

Projects Funded Statewide for Improved Boating Access, Navigation, and Safety.

A new study examining fishes’ reactions to heat at different stages of their life process has revealed that warming waters could impede reproduction in up to 60 percent of species.

A lack of data and options is trapping people in flood-prone homes and driving inequality.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- While the coronavirus pandemic has altered many travel plans, a number of attractions are offering an interactive virtual experience in the era of social distancing.

Sockeye fishing took on a larger purpose for a handful of volunteers at the mouth of the Yakima River early on June 26.

It is easy to throw uplifting quotes at a crisis, telling people that, if only they look hard enough, there will be an opportunity hidden somewhere.

Increased toxin levels have been detected in recent weeks during a routine nationwide shellfish monitoring programme along the South West and West coasts of Ireland.

Capistrano Beach Park can't catch a break. Holiday weekend high tides and surf hastened the destruction of remaining infrastructure.

More than $100,000 has been allocated by the State of Wisconsin to go toward managing the coastline in Kenosha and Racine counties.

All summer long, a crimson and white boat moves back and forth through the waters near the Port of Alaska collecting silt, sand and gravel off the seafloor to allow vessels to navigate the harbor in Anchorage.

Offshore wind is whirring ahead in US waters, albeit on a slower trajectory than its most ardent supporters had hoped.

You don’t often think of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration when talking about the Great Lakes, but NOAA will be in the spotlight later this week when it joins with Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory at The Ohio State University to forecast this year’s algal bloom on Lake Erie.

Largest dam on the river, in an earthquake-prone biodiversity hotspot, will risk one of the few habitats left for the endangered golden mahseer

GALVESTON: A small group of protesters Saturday took complaints about COVID-19-related closures to the beach.

(CNN) — After a two-week lull in the Atlantic hurricane season caused by Sarahan dust, the tropics are heating back up again.

Plans call for constructing artificial reef structures 15 to 20 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico in four locations, two off Destin and two off Okaloosa Island.

The $8 billion, 600-mile long Atlantic Coast Pipeline is dead.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed climate change from the headlines, but it has hardly arrested it.

The problem arises as fishing surges during pandemic.

New Jersey is warming faster than other Northeastern states, with average temperatures rising 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the fossil fuel era began in the 1880s, and heatwaves will get more numerous and frequent, according to the state’s first assessment of climate change.

Local agencies including Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown conducting flood risk evaluation on even finer scale

Plastic pollutants are proving to be a major issue in Irish Waters, an investigative study carried out by NUIG at Belharbour has found.

Most volcanic eruptions take place unseen at the bottom of the world's oceans. In recent years, oceanography has shown that this submarine volcanism not only deposits lava but also ejects large amounts of volcanic ash.

While sea levels are slowly rising at present, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) predicts that the tempo will accelerate from 2050 onwards and that this will have serious consequences.

This spring, as many of Germany's beaches were closed and people were encouraged to stay home, gray seals in the North Sea appear to have thrived. Numbers have tripled since 2008.

BOGUE BANKS — State officials in early June completed a plan to improve resilience to severe weather and other climate stressors coastal communities have long experienced.

BETHEL, Alaska (AP) — A group of Alaska fishermen have formed an organization they hope will help revitalize commercial salmon fishing in Kuskokwim Bay.

Cara Ellen Modisett fields the usual battery of questions every time she visits the doctor: Is she feeling well? Did she travel abroad? Has she been in contact with someone known to have the coronavirus?

After a three-month hiatus, tourism is expected to begin in Mykonos with the arrival of international travelers from countries including Spain, Switzerland, France and Austria.

At least eight restaurants have had to shut down for sanitization after employees tested positive for coronavirus.

AMERICAN RESILIENCE: A decade after recovering from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that left their beaches covered in tar, Gulf towns face another existential threat — the coronavirus pandemic.

BOSTON - A federal-level effort that brings together technology and policy minds to coordinate regional supply chains, foster a skilled workforce and plan for reliable transmission would help offshore wind energy become an even more attractive source of power, three members of the state’s Congressional delegation said.

The Port of Corpus Christi will receive additional funding from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) for infrastructure repairs damaged during Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Attorney Daniel Uhlfelder became morbid fixture of Panhandle sands. Now he heads east.

WASHINGTON: Since coronavirus emptied Hawaii of tourists, seals have been lounging on beaches, fish are swimming closer to shore and the turquoise water of the U.S. islands’ famous Hanauma Bay is 55% clearer, one marine biologist said.

A Coast Guard study that recommends against designated vessel transit lanes through New England offshore wind turbine arrays “contains serious foundational and analytical errors that merit correction,” commercial fishing advocates say in a formal objection to the findings.

Brazil plans to excavate and dredge many millions of cubic meters of material, including the ecologically sensitive Lourencão Rocks, to create an industrial shipping channel on the Tocantins River in the Amazon. This article includes rarely seen video images of some of the endemic and threatened fish living in the Tocantins River rapids.

Fiction: On a Barbarous Coast, Harold Ludwick and Craig Cormick Allen & Unwin

Consider it an early warning system that for many nations, islands and jurisdictions could help ensure a plan is put into place to fend off any danger to its coral reefs, which serve as both tourist magnets and ecosystems that provide food for residents.

Two members of the Florida delegation in the U.S. House teamed up this week on a proposal to create Centers of Excellence on Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) to help in the fights against red tide and blue-green algae.

A new app designed to rank the flood risk for every property in the U.S. has some distressing findings for Florida.

BAR HARBOR, Maine – Tourists typically pack this seaside village on Maine’s rocky coast for the Fourth of July holiday, lining up to take whale-watching trips, hike Cadillac Mountain or savor slices of blueberry pie. But since the coronavirus struck, the sidewalks have been desolate.

New studies looking at the relationship between property damage from floods and hurricanes—and the presence of mangrove trees—suggest that this coastal species, which is loved by fish, crustaceans, and invertebrates, can actually save a country millions of dollars of property damage every year.

Coastal wetlands like salt marshes are increasingly recognized as valuable natural defenses that protect coasts against strong wave attacks. Yet their performance during real-world, extreme storms has rarely been told.

Tonga is one of the world’s most exposed countries to climate change and natural disasters. It suffered the highest loss from natural disasters in the world (as a ratio to GDP) in 2018. “Climate change will make this worse,” says a new IMF assessment that was released this week.

Tourism along the Gulf of Mexico came to a screeching halt in 2010 after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill covered Texas, Lousiana, Alabama, and Florida resort towns' once-pristine beaches with tar.

Hurricane Sandy inundated parts of Staten Island, Queens and Lower Manhattan, where sea level rise caused by climate change threatening homes—and lives.

Everything you need to know about beach closures this Fourth of July weekend.

PILIBHIT: The rejection of a flood control project by the state government has put the lives of over 10,000 people of four villages in Pilibhit's Puranpur tehsil a risk.

An interview with surfer and astronaut Christina Koch about her 328-day spaceflight.

Robert Steneck will present “Maine's changing lobster fishery: some direct and indirect impacts of climate change” at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 10, as a virtual seminar, or webinar, hosted by the University of Maine Darling Marine Center in Walpole.

Across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, scientists are developing alternative sustainable solutions to the golden tide of Sargassum

A number of Orsted’s major wind developments in the US could be delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to analysts.

Thousands of oceanic whitetip sharks have died in commercial fishing off Hawaii. Now, WESPAC will have to devise a plan to better protect them.

Members of the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund Advisory Board spent months reviewing possible projects to finance with $85.5 million in Restore Act money.

Recent climate models are 'running hot,' projecting catastrophic global warming. Puzzled scientists are weighing whether the models need correcting or whether severe warming is a real threat.

U.S. Representatives Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Florida) and Don Young (R-Alaska) filed a bill in Congress on Friday, 26 June, that calls for USD 3 billion (EUR 2.67 billion) in grants funding designed to restore the country’s coastal ecosystems, including fisheries.

The effort faces objections, but it may be the best way to hold back storm surges.

In a tale reminiscent of a Jules Verne novel, scientists have found evidence suggesting people once lived in an area that is now buried 20 feet below the Gulf of Mexico.

The restraining order request comes just days before the Lido Key renourishment project is set to begin.

Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, Oregon’s United States Senators, announced that they had acquired $215,000 from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency for Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) to test levels of bacteria in water at Oregon beaches.

The first underwater Aboriginal archaeological sites have been discovered off northwest Australia dating back thousands of years ago when the current seabed was dry land.

The Carteret County Beach Commission should resist taking an apparent $44 million windfall from the Army Corps of Engineers as part of a proposed a long term beach nourishment program. It has liabilities that will wash out many of the possible benefits and in the process restrain local control of beach management.

It is FEMA’s job to warn homeowners about major flood risks, but its approach is notoriously limited. In Cook County alone, researchers found about six times as many properties in danger as FEMA estimated. Look up your address with a new tool.

In the depths of the water just west of Greenland, scientists have discovered a previously unknown coral garden. They described the ecosystem in a new study published in Frontiers in Marine Science on Monday.

Thousands of addresses in Beaufort County have been removed from the flood plain under new federal flood maps that went into effect earlier this month, but local officials are urging residents to consider their situation carefully before dropping their flood insurance.

Five federal agencies are collaborating to clarify rules related to flood insurance requirements.

A First Nations leadership alliance is calling for the immediate end to salmon farming using open-net pens in B.C. waters, citing the threat of sea lice to wild fish stocks.

EASTHAM — Kimberly Archer and her four recently retired pals were gathered around a blanket on Coast Guard Beach last week. The five women had made their annual trek to the Cape for some rest and relaxation.

The board of the Connecticut Port Authority picked an engineering firm to help oversee the $157 million redevelopment of State Pier into a wind turbine staging area, during a special meeting Tuesday.

YERSEKE (THE NETHERLANDS), 29 JUNE 2020 - Coastal wetlands like salt marshes are increasingly recognized as valuable natural defenses that protect coasts against strong wave attacks.

NEW YORK -- A bill pending in Congress could help a project to restore a natural barrier to storm damage in New York.

Major insurance companies are raising premiums as much as 33 percent and dropping tens of thousands of customers.

HAVANA (AP) — With the coronavirus waning in Cuba, the government plans to restart its tourism industry by sending visitors to five narrow islands that will offer all-inclusive vacations and keep foreigners isolated from the rest of the nation.

Members of the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund Advisory Board spent months reviewing possible projects to finance with $85.5 million in RESTORE Act money, and their final recommendation was 14 projects they said would have the biggest economic impact across South Mississippi.

Since the brief collapse of the OPEC+ coalition in early March, oil markets ended up facing the “triple whammy” of a Saudi-Russian price war, cratering demand from the coronavirus-induced economic freeze and swelling oversupply of nearly 10 million barrels per day on the world market amidst tightening onshore and offshore storage.

Elizabeth Marino gets students ready to deal with flooded coastlines and other impacts of a changing climate.

Audubon supports the Shovel-Ready Restoration Grants for Coastlines and Fisheries Act of 2020.

The right whale calf found floating off the Jersey Shore last week had evidence of at least two separate vessel collisions, federal authorities said.

As the patterns in the Pacific Ocean begin to change, athletes are turning to surf parks to catch their big breaks.

The Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, or APNEP, is partnering with the state Commission of Indian Affairs, or NCCIA, to support tribal communities in the Albemarle-Pamlico watershed in considering climate resilience during community planning.

HOLMES BEACH — He said it was a “work in progress.” Now, progress is proceeding. When Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer recommended the removal of about 1,100 on-street parking spaces in late April, commissioners agreed to the plan on Tokajer’s assurance it would be tweaked.

With confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. surpassing 2.5 million, several beaches are closed for the July 4 weekend in a bid to reduce the risk of spreading infection, while some are expected to be open amid the ongoing pandemic.

Invasive alien species are hitching rides on rafts of plastic waste strewn across oceans, slipping into the Arctic and Antarctica as the climate warms and spreading into new territories through the online pet trade.

Recently the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held a webinar regarding Oregon Offshore Wind (OSW). The focus was to discuss approaches for public and stakeholder engagement for potential future development off of our coast.

Democratic Sen. José Javier Rodríguez and GOP Rep. Vance Aloupis backed the bipartisan legislation.

EMERALD ISLE — It’s been about two months since the last Bogue Banks beach renourishment project ended April 29, but Carteret County officials are moving to go out for bids for the third phase of what’s known as the post-Hurricane Florence project.

In a study published recently in Ecology and Evolution, an international team of researchers focused on what can happen to ocean ecosystems when fishing pressure increases or decreases, and how this differs between tropical to temperate marine ecosystems.

State Senator Lynwood Lewis discusses preparing for floods in the commonwealth—and how new funding will help

One of the world’s first 3D printed houses went up in China in 2016. At 400 square meters in size and 2 stories tall, the house took 45 days to print—and at the time, this seemed amazingly fast.

Marine Toad contracted to restore 0.4 to 0.8 hectares of marine meadow at Juskatla Inlet pilot site

The U.S. Treasury Department has approved Escambia County’s plan for 11 RESTORE funding projects totaling $15.8 million.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Alabama State Port Authority have now officially entered into a Project Partnership Agreement to deepen and widen the Mobile Harbor Ship Channel by late 2024 or early 2025.

The last time the state created one was 32 years ago.

ELLSWORTH — The Department of Marine Resources held its first “virtual” zone council meeting last Thursday andCommissioner Patrick Keliher had an unanticipated and unsettling piece of news for the Zone C and Zone D lobstermen.