How did the monstrous giant squid—reaching school-bus size, with eyes as big as dinner plates and tentacles that can snatch prey 10 yards away—get so scarily big?

Archaeologists have found a collection of seashells and volcanic rock once owned by Neanderthals in Grotta dei Moscerini in central Italy.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has made the fourth and final set of awards as part of a broader professional and technical services contract vehicle to support the agency’s environmental intelligence gathering mission.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeks to dramatically increase the supply of radio occultation soundings it feeds into weather forecast models.

US atmospheric agency also says that ocean heat content is the highest in recorded history.

"The moment of crisis has come" in efforts to tackle climate change, Sir David Attenborough has warned.

TCarta Marine, a provider of marine geospatial products, is commercializing a new technique to derive highly accurate shallow-water bathymetry measurements from NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite data. The new methodology is being developed with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). In 2018, NSF awarded the company a Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to commercialize new satellite-derived bathymetric (SDB) measurement technologies. Referred to as Project Trident, the research focused on leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) - machine learning and computer vision - to determine shallow-water seafloor depth in variable water conditions.

Following the success of the DYNAREV experiment in the summer of 2017, a second Bath-led laboratory experiment on a low cost style of dynamic revetment was carried out in collaboration with researchers from institutions in both Europe and Brazil, supported by GCRF funding.

A nonprofit flood risk research organization is offering the first publicly available flood risk model that predicts the probability of flooding for homes and properties across the United States.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is phasing out traditional paper navigation charts, but one NOAA official says the chart for Carteret County should last through the year.

NOAA is kicking off a year-long celebration to mark its upcoming 50th anniversary. Since its inception on October 3, 1970, NOAA has become one of the world’s premier science agencies that protects life and property, leads stewardship of the ocean and Great Lakes, and drives the blue economy — a mission that spans from the surface of the sun to the floor of the ocean.

EPA, Corps of Engineers Face Third Lawsuit on WOTUS Rule

As sea levels rise, the planet's natural bulwarks against the ocean could help protect the coastline. But these very habitats are also under threat.

This article is part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

It’s a $6-billion scourge that afflicts Navy destroyers, cruise ships and historic vessels like the Queen Mary without fear or favor.

Forty percent of the human population lives within 100 kilometers of a coastline, with one in ten living under ten meters above sea level. As climate change induces more volatile flooding events and long-term sea level rises, it is estimated that coastal flooding could cause as much as $1 trillion of damage per year by 2050. We cannot escape the reality that cities, and their populations, are more vulnerable to flooding than ever.

For centuries, human being have fought against the sea to gain more coastline. With the rising sea level, the eternal tug of war is entering a new era.

A newly developed method for assessing how abundant fish populations are and how fishing is affecting them revealed that several fish stocks across oceans are far below internationally agreed minimum levels and in urgent need of sustainable management.

Moving away from its early exclusive focus on natural disasters, resilient architecture and design tackles the much tougher challenge of helping ecosystems regenerate.

Storms brew for US cities as investors wake up to the risks of extreme weather events. It is only a “matter of time” before gaps in funding costs begin to emerge between cities with robust climate adaptation plans and those without, said Dan Rabasco, Boston-based head of municipal bonds at Mellon Investments.

NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research and the ocean data and technology company Ocean Infinityoffsite link have announced a new agreement to develop deep-water autonomous technologies that can gather ultra-high-resolution ocean information.

Social impact was supposed to be central to sustainability from the start. What happened?

The rating agency responsible for assigning financial stability ratings (FSR) to more than 40 Florida domestic insurers has warned that several carriers will receive downgrades due to deteriorating conditions in the state’s property insurance market, and more than a dozen more could be downgraded in the next few months

The world’s largest LNG bunkering vessel, which will be chartered by the French energy giant Total and owned and operated by MOL, has completed sea trials, according to Bureau Veritas official.

President Trump on Thursday capped a three-year drive to roll back clean air and water protections by proposing stark changes to the nation’s oldest and most established environmental law that could exempt major infrastructure projects from environmental review.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) FEMA reported its 2020 traditional reinsurance placement for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in a transaction in which 27 private reinsurers assumed $1.33 billion of NFIP’s financial risk.

When President Trump signed a $1.4 trillion spending package in December to keep the government funded through 2020, there was a climate policy milestone buried in the budget. For the first time ever, the government allocated funding for a federal agency to conduct geoengineering research.

Tyler Coleman, a volunteer for Trout Unlimited, took a paper cup with trout eggs to the Center for Creativity, Innovation & Discovery Tuesday afternoon and put them in a basket in a large aquarium.

The southbound lane of North Upper Truckee Road in Tahoe often turns into a parking lot on a Sunday afternoon, especially during the winter ski season. The two-lane road is a popular bypass with tourists trying to avoid Highway 50 traffic on their return home after a weekend in the mountains.

Jessica Anderson’s phone has been blowing up. Friends and family want to know if she has heard: The latest American Girl doll is a surfer girl named Joss from Huntington Beach.

Right now, national infrastructure projects must carefully consider their eco-implications. But the Trump administration would change the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to make it easier to get those deals built and without considering the “cumulative impact” — code for climate change.

Efforts by Kenya to tap the unexploited potential of the maritime industry, commonly known as the ‘Blue Economy’, came into sharp focus recently when a youth gathering in Mombasa raised concerns over the delay by the government in creating an integrated policy framework to chart a way forward.

Until the advent of drones, helicopters were the only option for aerial tasks that required remaining stationary in midair or called for low-flying flexibility not offered by airplanes. But the use of helicopters has occasionally resulted in fatal crashes like a 2017 crash at the Port of Los Angeles that killed both the pilot and a photographer who was taking pictures of cruise ships.

The potential environmental and economic consequences posed by proposals for fish farming in federal waters dictate that Congress — not a federal agency — must decide how to regulate the industry, an attorney told a federal appeals court Monday.

In the first days of 2020, the Pacific Ocean archipelago nation of Palau took the momentous step of protecting 80% — 500,000 square kilometers — of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from fishing. The move is at once a cultural tradition, a far-sighted strategy for future generations and an example of the level of conservation needed to protect ocean biodiversity and habitat.

The Merchant Marine Act (1920) outlines one of the most consequential non-tariff barriers (NTBs) in U.S. history, and June 5th will mark its 100th anniversary. Often called the Jones Act after its sponsor, Sen. Wesley L. Jones (R-WA), the intent was to incentivize the building and maintenance of a domestic fleet of commercial ocean vessels that would be owned and operated primarily by U.S. citizens. The Jones Act set this requirement to ensure both national defense and a “proper growth of commerce” using the “best type of ships.” Regulators have since interpreted this to mean that the vessels must also be built by U.S.-owned shipyards. Most countries have some form of cabotage restrictions but the U.S. stands out with its domestic build and repair requirements in the maritime sector.

There’s a new buzzword zinging around the fringes of the national homebuilders’ world: “Resiliency.”

The energy industry has overcome many “resiliency” challenges. Climate change is the biggest one yet, the author writes.

Denmark sourced almost half its electricity consumption from wind power last year, a new record boosted by steep cost reductions and improved offshore technology.

Hedge funds are approaching the end of the year more optimistic on global oil prices than they’ve been since May.

Some climate change is now inevitable. Many communities are trying to adapt to the consequences.

This decade was likely the hottest on record. As it comes to a close and another begins, one glaring question is: Can the world make up for this lost time?

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation ("Great Lakes") (GLDD), the largest provider of dredging services in the United States announced today the receipt of several major dredging awards totaling $83 million.

One of the busiest years yet for climate litigation, 2019 was highlighted by favorable decisions handed down by some of the world’s highest courts.

Two threats loom large as the third decade of the 21st century begins. While they manifest in starkly different ways, both are the product of human behavior. Both will profoundly shape our lives in the years to come — and there is little sign that we as a species are addressing and mitigating the consequences of either challenge. And, most alarming, only collective action will work. No matter how motivated some of us may be, failure to work together will ensure that these challenges overwhelm us.

Rice-led scientists show grain size, not speed of water, sets silt and sand transport

Because sharks are jawsome.

Bipartisan language was added to the 2020 spending bill Dec. 16 that will forgive more than $10 million in accrued loan interest that was forced onto the Pacific Coast ground fishing fleet.

Goldman Sachs has released a report on the effects of climate change on cities across the world. The study explored the major changes that will transform the planet and highlighted several metropolises that will be at risk of flooding.

SeaWorld Orlando says it will begin 2020 by changing its centerpiece killer-whale show.

WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- Coastal wetlands provide stunning views and are hosts to a vast biodiversity. But they provide another service to the warming Earth: they capture carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in their sediment at high rates.

“If you keep adapting without mitigating, what you are doing is compounding the effects on the poor. Adaptation without reduction of carbon emissions is immoral, and it’s stupid.” – Keith Clarke, former Atkins CEO and chairman, Forum for the Future

DNA-based biomonitoring relies on species-specific segments of organisms DNA for their taxonomic identification and is rapidly advancing for monitoring invertebrate communities across a variety of ecosystems. The analytical approaches taken vary from single-species detection to bulk environmental sample analysis, depending largely on the focus of data generation. However, for freshwater systems, there is often a lack of consideration as to the optimal sample type for maximising detection of macroinvertebrates.

Women in Scottish Aquaculture (WiSA) have kicked off a series of Scottish Government-supported diversity initiatives with the launch of a new mentoring programme.

U.S. members of the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) are pleased that many port related programs championed by AAPA are included in the two legislative appropriation packages released by Congress yesterday. Once funding is in place, ports look forward to continuing to deliver consumer goods, jobs and the quality of life Americans depend on.

Historic cities and towns along the Southeastern U.S. coast have survived wars, hurricanes, disease outbreaks and other calamities, but now that sea levels are creeping up with no sign of stopping, they face a more existential crisis.

Using historical data from tide gauges that line US coasts, researchers created an extreme sea level indicator

Cities will be on the frontlines of climate adaptation. Building up their resilience has the potential to drive one of the largest infrastructure build-outs in history and will likely require innovative sources of financing.

Beach communities are well familiar with such hazards as storms, floods, and erosion. And with more frequent and intense rainstorms associated with rising sea levels, the problems created by these weather events will get worse with the climate emergency, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Already, some of America’s most popular beaches have lost a considerable amount of shoreline.

Rice-led scientists show grain size, not speed of water, sets silt and sand transport

A decade of conservation changed a species’ image from villain to vulnerable

"We hope other American banks will follow their lead," an environmentalist said.

News about conservation and the environment is made every day, but some of it can fly under the radar. In a recurring feature, Conservation News shares three stories from the past week that you should know about.

Exposure to underwater pile driving noise, which can be associated with the construction of docks, piers, and offshore wind farms, causes squid to exhibit strong alarm behaviors, according to a study by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) researchers published Dec. 16, 2019, in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

The wind over deep-sea waters offers the potential to become one of the country’s largest renewable energy sources.

The impact of an asteroid or comet is acknowledged as the principal cause of the mass extinction that killed off most dinosaurs and about three-quarters of the planet’s plant and animal species 66 million years ago.

It’s been more than two years since Hurricane Irma slammed into the Florida Keys and flooded the streets with debris and water. While some residents moved away from the island chain after Irma, the majority decided to stay.

Proposes funding for natural infrastructure, make D.C. eligible for coastal funding. Republicans say the legislation is unnecessary, sets arbitrary limits

Finds most ocean acidification, which harms marine life and coastal economies, has been triggered by 88 companies, including Exxon Mobil

According to experts, these zones result from the loss of oxygen, and they are expanding due to climate change and pollutants from agricultural wastes

A new study published by scientists from the Faroese Marine Research Institute reveals that traces of DNA left behind in seawater can be used to predict the biomass of Atlantic cod. The findings show that the so-called environmental DNA approach can track the regional patterns of commercially important fish in the ocean. The paper, led by Dr. Ian Salter, was published on the 10th December in Nature Communications Biology.

Dire warnings on climate change from scientists warning about more severe consequences and less time to stop them.

Carissa Moore arrived on the World Surf League Championship Tour in 2010. The 27-year-old has seen the WSL and sport radically transform over the past decade, and she hopes that will continue as surfing makes its debut on the world’s biggest stage next summer at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Today, Boost Surfing, creator of the first electric fin for surfboards, announced the launch of its Kickstarter campaign and the opening of pre-orders for the world-first surfing electric Fin.

Only passing concern is shown for the world’s oceans and ignores their part in confronting climate change.

The shift of container shipping services toward U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports and away from West Coast ports is far from over, according to industry veteran John McCown, founder of Blue Alpha Capital and former CEO of liner company Trailer Bridge.

Architects and planners from the Netherlands are advising coastal cities worldwide on how to live with water

The oceans, covering 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, have taken the brunt of global warming. However, a recent study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) shows that the ocean’s absorption of 90 percent of the heat linked to greenhouse gas emissions came at great cost.

Scientists are embarking on a new project for the U.S. Department of Energy that targets some of the biggest uncertainties in projecting the evolution of coastal environments. The Integrated Coastal Modeling project, led by Kraucunas, focuses on developing and integrating computational models that can simulate coastal processes.

Understanding ocean noise is important for conservation efforts, researchers say

There is no shortage of spaceports in the United States. When launch sites come to mind, one usually thinks of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and neighboring Kennedy Space Center, or perhaps Vandenberg Air Force Base in California or Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Perhaps, also, Spaceport America in New Mexico, the future home of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (see “An ‘operationally ready’ spaceport”, The Space Review, August 19, 2019)

The shift of container shipping services toward U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports and away from West Coast ports is far from over, according to industry veteran John McCown, founder of Blue Alpha Capital and former CEO of liner company Trailer Bridge.

Cruisers around the world are being urged to join the Trash Tuesday initiative to try and tackle ocean pollution

Climate negotiators in Madrid are trying to avoid 2 meters of sea level rise, but research suggests 10 times that — 65 feet — is already inevitable.

SWANSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Historic cities and towns along the Southeastern U.S. coast have survived wars, hurricanes, disease outbreaks and other calamities, but now that sea levels are creeping up with no sign of stopping, they face a more existential crisis.

How long will the fight last? Water is eroding land all over the world, threatening people’s lives and livelihoods, especially those living along the coastline. According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the oceans and cryosphere in a changing climate, sea levels, globally, are expected to rise by between 0.61 and 1.1 metres by 2100 – as a combined result of melting icecaps and waters expanding as their temperatures rise. In addition to the plight of the island nations disappearing beneath the waves, as in the Pacific, all low-lying communities near the sea are at risk, particularly from coastal flooding after major weather events.

A rising tide of sustainably minded travelers are looking to cruise the old-school way.

Officials are increasingly recognizing that integrating nature into cities is an effective public health strategy to improve mental health. Doctors around the world now administer “green prescriptions” – where patients are encouraged to spend time in local nature spaces – based on hundreds of studies showing that time in nature can benefit people’s psychological well-being and increase social engagement.

The offshore wind industry is making great strides in developing technology to build projects further from the shore, including technological innovations in floating foundations and hydrogen storage. However, a new report by Chatham Partners, a boutique law firm specializing in renewable energy, indicates that if such technology were to allow the construction of wind farms in the high seas, the current legal framework would not have the scope to cover such development.

In 2012, the State Department of the United States declared December 4 “Wildlife Conservation Day.” They wanted to highlight wildlife trafficking and illegal trade — and recognize the important work of conservationists around the world.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), joined by partners Shell and TransRe, announced $30 million in new grants to support coastal resilience projects in 23 states and U.S. territories.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) is leading a pioneering international project to sequence the DNA of marine microbes in the Arctic Ocean.

A conveyor belt of ocean water that loops the planet and regulates global temperatures could be heading for a tipping point.

Millions of years before Colombia won its independence from Spain at the historic Battle of Boyacá, the site was covered by an inland ocean inhabited by marine invertebrates. Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and collaborators discovered a new fossil species of comma shrimp that was remarkably well preserved in mid-Cretaceous rocks of Boyacá, now part of the Colombian Andes, allowing them to fill a 160 million-year gap in the evolution of these crustaceans.

Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S will cut hundreds of jobs to cut costs as the shipping giant prepares for significantly higher fuel costs next year and plans to invest more heavily in inland logistics services.

"I'm a real estate developer and this is a developer's dream,” spoke Lela Goren, a NYC-based developer and investor during a UN Habitat event as she looked over a scale model of Oceanix City—a floating city concept that could be deployed around the world.

New Delhi: Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Babul Supriyo said that the Ministry has embarked upon a program for ‘Blue Flag’ certification for select beaches in the country.

New reports are questioning the effectiveness of cap-and-trade programs against climate change in California and for East Coast states. Emissions in California and globally are projected to skyrocket in the decades ahead unless significant action is taken.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (11/30/19) — Last week, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul reintroduced the Harbor Equity Act (S. 2923), which modifies the existing criteria used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge smaller harbors.

An Oregon State University anthropologist has been awarded $750,000 by the National Science Foundation to research issues facing coastal communities exposed to repetitive flooding, and the effectiveness of federal disaster response policies.