If, by some sort of divine dissing, the East Coast were to go completely flat until December 1st, surfers here would still have to admit: Fall 2019 has been a pretty damn good season for surf. We’ve gotten tropical swells, we’ve gotten nor’easter surf, and in the case of this most recent deal, we even got a nor’easter that turned tropical.

Vineyard Wind has proposed a new offshore wind energy project in Bridgeport, Conn.

Researchers use long-term survey data sets and climate models to help fishing communities plan for a warmer ocean. Researchers have developed a tool that incorporates projected changes in ocean climate onto a geographic fishery management area. Now fishermen, resource managers, and policy-makers can use it to plan for the future sustainability of the lobster fishery in Nova Scotia and Canadian waters of the Gulf of Maine.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has volleyed back at NOAA Fisheries, saying it will continue pursuing “critical points” from its analysis of data used by the federal fishery regulator to determine causes of injuries or deaths to North Atlantic right whales.

On a chilly October afternoon on Marconi Beach in Wellfleet, a family visiting from Germany looks for seals just off the shore. Father and husband Bernd Matzner, from Berlin, is a recreational diver who has dived all around the world. But he has no ambitions to dive on Cape Cod. That's because, Matzner says, he prefers to stay away from great white sharks.

The high tides and strong winds that lashed the shores of New Jersey over the weekend took something with them. The weather conditions that pummeled the shores from Thursday through Sunday caused massive soil erosion. The severity varied along the coastline, each one more visible than the last.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation has hired a consulting firm from the Netherlands to develop the city’s Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan. “Arcadis, which is currently working on the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, along with 18 other consultants will come up with options for protecting communities in Lower Manhattan which are vulnerable to climate change effects, including rising sea levels and flooding.” –Crain’s

On Oct. 14, 2019 at 1:30 a.m. EDT (0530 UTC), the MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi satellite revealed that Melissa was being adversely affected by wind shear that was pushing all storms northeast of the center. In that area, cloud top temperatures were as cold as minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 Celsius).

The state of New York has filed a federal lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) looking to challenge the 2020-20201 quota allocated in relation to the commercial fluke (summer flounder) fishery.

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. (WPVI) -- Several Jersey shore towns are trying to figure out how they'll replenish their beaches after a storm moved up the coast last week, causing tidal flooding and beach erosion.

Restore America’s Estuaries granted organizations based on Cape Cod and around Buzzards Bay with over $1 million for the preservation of the area’s coastal waters and watersheds.

Tropical Storm Melissa, slowly rotating off the Atlantic Coast, has pushed water up the Chesapeake Bay, resulting in coastal flooding. Shorelines and roadways were flooded in waterfront communities throughout Maryland.

Rising sea levels could force the Navy to abandon the U.S. Naval Academy’s current location by 2100: A call for action.

Borough President Gale A. Brewer and Council Member Carlina Rivera announced Thursday the completed report by independent consulting firm Deltares on the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR). As 6sqft previously reported, the project was first developed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and is intended to protect 2.2 miles of Manhattan’s East Side, between East 25th Street and Montgomery Street, from flooding and improve access to waterfront space. According to the city, the ESCR project would protect over 110,000 New Yorkers in the area.

OLD LYME — Multiple town commissions and members of the public are expected to raise objections to a proposed text amendment to Tidal Waters Protection regulation at Tuesday’s meeting of the Zoning Commission in Old Lyme. The amendment would double the current 50-foot setback to 100 feet along coastal and riverfront properties.

PROVINCETOWN — There is no clear way to predict what the winter will bring for coastal erosion.

> Oyster reefs are natural barriers that protect shorelines from erosion, tides and storm surge. > They knock down the height and force of waves, but they’ve been decimated by a century of overharvesting and worsening water quality. > Now, they are being rehabbed by multiple projects using millions of dollars of public and private funding. > More than 70 New York City area restaurants are donating their wholly eaten half shells to the Billion Oyster Project.

Harbor patrol: The ports in Brooklyn's Red Hook section should see some of the $200 million Albany is floating for port-infrastructure improvements related to the offshore-wind industry.

When Hurricane Sandy’s floodwaters ravaged the first floor of Frank Cattie’s Ocean City, N.J., home, he assessed the damage, filed a flood insurance claim, and braced for the financial impact. But he was certain of one thing: He would not give up his slice of Shore heaven.

Commercially valuable tuna, swordfish, sharks and other “highly migratory species” will be the focus of research to be conducted by a consortium that includes the University of Maine.

Governors Island has worn many hats over its lifetime: An outpost for the Dutch West India Company, a Civil War prison for Confederate soldiers, and more recently has become a recreational hub for public art, “glamping,” and festivals.

Each summer for the last two decades, Jim Parker has readied his small whale watch boat, and made a business out of ferrying tourists out into the cool blue waters of the Gulf of Maine.For years, it was steady work. The basin brimmed with species that whales commonly feed on, making it a natural foraging ground for the aquatic giants. Whales would cluster at certain spots in the gulf, providing a reliable display for enchanted visitors to the coastal community of Milbridge, Maine.

More beach replenishment and dune building is coming to Cape May County, federal officials announced.

Walk down the stone steps along Water Street and the wall of granite blocks holding up the Great Depression Wall built by Works Progress Administration, or WPA, crews back in the day is clearly visible. So are the gaping holes in it.

European big hitters among contenders for 2GW procurement round launched by US state

Federal fisheries regulators are taking heat from both sides of the debate over protections for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

One of the remaining shore towns in New Jersey that has free beach access is discussing the possibility of implementing beach tags.

The following letter is NOAA Fisheries' response to the Maine Lobster Industry in the ongoing dispute as to how to manage the conservation effort of the North Atlantic Right Whale.

There is no clear way to predict what the winter will bring for coastal erosion.

It was the first mention of its kind, and likely not the last. Amidst a township council meeting last week marked by raucous debate over unrelated issues, an Ortley Beach resident noted during a public comment period that some beaches appeared to be getting a bit smaller.

The Town of East Hampton wants to create a Montauk erosion control tax district to pay for beach replenishments.

A federal plan that could loosen the rules about fishing for one of the most debated species in the ocean has attracted the attention of fishermen and environmentalists, some of whom fear years of conservation work could be undone.

Responding to climate change by promoting resilient local action

ATLANTIC COUNTY — The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded a $7.3 million grant to Brigantine, Atlantic City, Ventnor, Margate, Longport, and Somers Point to partially cover the cost to elevate homes.

Offshore wind energy developers are moving to set up their first U.S. manufacturing and support bases, sensing momentum in the market with New York and New Jersey seeking a combined 12 gigawatts of new energy by 2030.

In Montauk, ‘if you double the length of the project, you quadruple the lifetime’

As threats from major storms increase, authorities are proposing surge barriers to protect New York Harbor. Some ecologists are concerned these giant barriers could have serious consequences for the Hudson, now hailed for its much-heralded recovery, and for other area waters.

The billion-dollar plan to bury and rebuild East River Park as part of a new coastal resiliency plan won approval from the City Planning Commission last night.

Governor Cuomo announced he will lay out in his 2020 State of the State address an aggressive nation-leading initiative to restock and restore aquatic habitats throughout the state.

New Jersey, which has waged relentless court battles to build protective sand dunes along its coast, may take the unusual step of trimming some large dunes and using the sand to widen the beach in front of them.

Home to “New York City’s newest island,” Hunter’s Point South is a city-funded park that offers lessons for cities struggling with rising tides.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Sea Grant College Program has awarded $2 million to support research projects to advance understanding of the American lobster, and to support a regional lobster extension program.

Residents and visitors alike are willing to pay for the preservation of Montauk’s ocean beaches, the East Hampton Town Board was told on Tuesday, and both groups are amenable to either a property tax or a lodging tax to finance a wide, healthy beach.

"We are going to fight to keep living here. We are up there with 'hell no, we won't go.'" - Marie Reed

New York is bracing for the rising sea levels that climate change will bring, and preparations have already begun -- but the long-term costs of adapting to a warmer, wetter world are expected to be astronomical.

Although nearly all of Main Street will not be included in coastal resiliency planning, town hall will, the Falmouth Coastal Resiliency Action Committee decided Tuesday, September 17.

More than a dozen scientists have signed a letter defending the science behind proposed measures to protect North Atlantic right whales. There are only about 400 of the critically endangered whales remaining, and their numbers are falling.

In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy killed 43 people and caused nearly $20 billion in damages and lost productivity in New York City. While the city has not seen a storm of that scale in the nearly seven years since, climate change, sea level rise, and the dangers posed by major weather events have continued to accelerate. In the aftermath of Sandy, the city began to implement a number of programs to make the city more resilient, or prepared for another Sandy-caliber disaster.

East Hampton has a ripe opportunity to rebuild Montauk’s beachfront at a discount by piggybacking on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to bolster the beach near the hamlet’s downtown.

As a microcosm of the challenges facing coastal cities around the world, New York’s Jamaica Bay pretty much has it all.

On Monday, September 16, NOAA Fisheries received a report of a dead North Atlantic right whale floating 4 miles south of Fire Island Inlet off Long Island, NY.

A dead North Atlantic right whale found floating off New York’s Long Island Monday afternoon could raise the official death toll of the endangered species to 29 in the last two years, jacking up pressure on the U.S. and Canadian governments to slow those losses.

Warming within the swirling ocean depths of the Gulf of Maine has implications for all life and livelihoods within the ecosystem. Scientists, fishermen and aquaculturists brace for challenges.

If you want to understand the extent and power of what sea level rise in Long Island Sound can do, have a look at the less than 4 acres that is the Dodge Paddock/Beal Preserve in Stonington.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program has awarded $2 million to lobster research projects and a regional lobster extension program.

WELLFLEET — For those who love Cape Cod as an ocean playground, the world shifted a year ago today when a 26-year-old bodyboarder from Revere was fatally attacked by a great white shark at Newcomb Hollow Beach. Arthur Medici’s death was the first in Massachusetts in over 72 years and the only shark fatality in the U.S. in 2018. It devastated his family and shocked the local surfing community.

NARRAGANSETT — When Rhode Island commercial fishermen sat down a year ago with offshore wind developers, they say they made it clear that for the sake of navigational safety the minimum spacing of any turbines installed in ocean waters needs to be at least one nautical mile in every direction.

Picture a washing machine. Now imagine nearly 50 million of them lining the 6.5-mile strip of white sand at Wantagh’s Jones Beach State Park, located just 35 miles east of Manhattan on a barrier island in the Great South Bay claimed by both Nassau and Suffolk counties.

The Founding Fathers' old stomping ground is grappling with storm resiliency.

As much of the East Side community remains strongly opposed to the city’s coastal-resiliency plan, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Councilmember Carlina Rivera this week announced the hiring of an independent consultant to review the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project.

NOAA Fisheries will continue to work with the Maine lobster industry, others, to address risk the Maine lobster fishery poses to North Atlantic right whales.

The fate of the increasingly rare North Atlantic right whale has always been left up to humans. And, on the American Shoreline Podcast, catch Dr. Michael Asaro, head of the Right Whale Take Reduction Team at NOAA Fisheries. It's "game on" for the last 400 N. Atlantic right whales and the discussion about the best way to save them is heating up. We take you inside the discussions on the American Shoreline Podcast.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. was awarded a $7.5 million contract for a beach nourishment project for the Townsends and Cape May inlets, officials said.

“We’re bolstering New York City’s defenses against climate threats with a bold and unprecedented $20 billion resiliency plan,” Jainey Bavishi, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Resiliency told Bklyner. “There is no quick fix for the risks we face, but the City’s efforts have already made New Yorkers safer and will continue to ensure that our neighborhoods, economy, and public services will be ready to withstand and emerge stronger from the impacts of climate change.”

CHATHAM — When it comes to controlling shorefront erosion and maintaining navigation, Chatham Harbor poses some problems. The solution, or at least part of it, might be found on Tern Island.

All along the Jersey Shore today, locals reminisce about that major storm of 2012, calling it “Sandy,” like a familiar old friend. But Superstorm Sandy was no friend to the Jersey Shore.

The Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, has sent a letter to the coalition of New England governors (NEG) and Eastern Canadian Premiers (ECP) pushing for greater regional effort to prevent more North Atlantic right whale deaths.

Federal government downplays the findings

It’s a success story for the birds! An increasing number of Osprey are spending their summers in Connecticut after migrating from as far away as Florida and South America, and the surging numbers are partially due to human help.

Portland city planners are proposing new zoning rules that would encourage developers to consider sea-level rise when building in flood-prone areas.

(CNN) — A fisherman off the coast of Maine pulled in an incredibly rare two-toned lobster on Friday. It's a one in 50 million find.

Construction of the country’s first commercial scale offshore wind farm off Massachusetts’ coast will be delayed until at least next year while the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management determines the cumulative effect of construction of multiple wind farms in the region, the agency said in a recent update.

BOSTON — Canadian premiers and U.S. governors in the Northeast need to take active steps to protect imperiled North Atlantic right whales from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement, according to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.

There are two ways to go whale-watching. One is to take a boat, and go to them. The other is to stay on shore — and let them come to you.

As Hurricane Dorian devastated the Bahamas and headed toward the United States, like everyone else watching I thought: Could it come here and are we ready for it? In the years since Superstorm Sandy, the New York metropolitan area has done a great deal to repair infrastructure and prepare for another storm. When buildings are built anywhere near New York City’s 600 miles of coastline or on the shores of Long Island or New Jersey there is a built-in assumption that it makes sense to try to prepare for floods and winds. Con Edison has spent over a billion dollars to protect its facilities from flooding. The MTA’s Fix and Fortify Program spent billions of dollars as subway tunnels and stations were renovated to limit future flood damage. That work continues today with repairs throughout the system. The region’s beaches are being widened, jetties are being rebuilt, while storm walls and sand dunes are built and reinforced. New Yorkers understand that climate change is real and we need to do everything we can to get ready for the storms that are coming.

It will identify solutions to rising sea temperatures in a part of the ocean warming faster than almost any other.

Major developments coming in Bushwick Inlet Park, Harlem River Park, Port Morris and more.

Commercial real estate properties will require innovative and tailored solutions for resilience. Resilient design can allow properties to adapt, thrive, and survive both chronic and catastrophic changes in the natural environment.

The Army Corps of Engineers has been tasked with producing a feasibility study on how to best protect the greater New York City area from flooding, a reaction to Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and sea-level rise caused by climate change.

The Vineyard Wind project is a major test of the offshore wind industry. The 84-turbine project is hailed as the first large utility-scale power source, after the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm went on-line in December 2016.

BOSTON – Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey today, September 4, called on the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG/ECP) to immediately act to protect the North Atlantic right whale, a species on the brink of extinction.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) has announced its intent to withdraw from an April agreement that aims to reduce risk to the right whale population.

On September 6, 2018, Omega Protein Inc. out of Reedville, Va., (parent company Cooke Seafood) sent four200-foot-long reduction ships up to the New York Bight for two days. Each one has the holding capacity of 1.5 and 2 million fish each, enabling a total removal of 8 million bunker from key waters in the fall, just before our striped bass migration arrives.

You could almost hear the sound of federal money being sucked toward the politically powerful city of New Orleans. Up to a quarter of the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget goes to shoring up the Mississippi in a normal year, billions more in the wake of one of their frequent hurricanes.

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the world. For years, states that provide the Bay’s watershed—Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, New York, and the District of Columbia—have been working with varying success to improve the health of the bay.

Floods and flash floods kill more people each year than any other severe weather hazard. And a few extra minutes of notice can make a big difference — reducing deaths and economic loss. This is why researchers at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory are partnering with the NOAA National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center to test an experimental flash flood and intense rainfall forecasting tool.

HYANNIS – The state is awarding coastal communities grants to combat the impact of climate change. Twenty-one projects will share $2.4 million.

It’s not just that proposed federal rules intended to protect endangered right whales from entanglement with fishing gear will be expensive and difficult to implement, industry representatives say. It’s also that they won’t work.

Red Hook remains vulnerable to sea-level rise and storms.

NORTH WILDWOOD – “Parts of the seawall have collapsed,” Mayor Patrick Rosenello said Aug. 20 during the North Wildwood City Council meeting.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association withdrew support from an agreement that calls for Northeast lobstermen to reduce their risk to endangered North Atlantic right whales by 60%.

Peer reviewers from NOAA will analyze assessments for Northeast groundfish stocks from September 9 to 13.

The After5 Beach Cleanup, held every Wednesday throughout the summer, is the creation of Clean Ocean Access, a nonprofit organization that focuses on shoreline access and a healthy ocean, free of marine debris. It’s one of many events the organization holds to meld education and action, especially on Aquidneck Island

Ronald Beaty, a commissioner with Barnstable County, the Cape's regional government, said officials also need to enact shark safety measures that reassure vacationers, or risk turning them away forever. A long-awaited study of possible solutions by a consultant hired by Cape Cod communities is slated to be released sometime in September.

New York recently announced the largest procurement of offshore wind power in U.S. history: to develop 9.0 GW of projects by 2035. New Jersey has set a goal of 3.5 GW by 2030. Barely a year after Massachusetts pledged to at least 1.6 GW of offshore wind, the Department of Energy Resources released a report recommending the Commonwealth doubled that commitment. Connecticut has signed on for 2.0 GW of offshore wind. There are others.

As Connecticut races to get its first offshore wind projects on track for construction, a collision of factors appear to be working against them.

New York State’s artificial-reef program has migrated north, with a fresh deployment of inorganic materials creating a new “marine habitat” in the Long Island Sound.

The Brick Store Museum is offering a Mother’s Beach Walking Tour every Saturday at 10 a.m. until Columbus Day to visitors who want to learn about the history of Kennebunk’s beach houses.

A fishing vessel travels Dec. 20, 2016, in Block Island Sound, with a 6-megawatt wind turbine generator, comprising the first offshore wind farm in the United States, the 30 megawatt, five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm by Deepwater Wind, in the background. Environmentalists and offshore wind companies are applauding Connecticut's first bidding war devoted to offshore wind. The request for proposals includes stipulations to protect marine wildlife and the fishing industry.