As the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic escalates, marine biologists at Florida Atlantic University acknowledge that "wild" life must go on. Three 6-month-old green sea turtles, the last batch of the 2019 hatchlings at the FAU Marine Laboratory at the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex, were ready to be released. However, with closed beaches and scuba boats not permitted to travel, researchers from the FAU Marine Laboratory had to get creative.

The COVID 19 monies that will soon be propelled into the nation’s hands include help for the seafood industry, which has been affected by closures in restaurants and bars.

GALVESTON, Texas– On March 30, the Galveston District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $16.9 million contract to Great Lakes Environmental and Infrastructure LLC of Rocklin, California, for repairs and raises to the Port Arthur Coastal Storm Risk Management System.

Surfside Beach rental market experiencing difficult time

In an unprecedented fifth opening in the last five years, the Army Corps of Engineers will open 20 bays of the Bonnet Carre Spillway Friday morning to reduce pressure on river levees in the New Orleans area and keep the Mississippi River below its official flood stage of 17 feet.

Santa Rosa County Commissioners approved signing an agreement Thursday, March 26 between Holley-Navarre Water, Gulf Breeze City and the Northwest Florida Water Management District that Commissioner Lane Lynchard of Gulf Breeze labeled “an absolutely huge deal for Santa Rosa County, Santa Rosa Sound, and Navarre Beach.”

The latest U.S. government effort to better the nation’s weather forecast modeling may not be adequate to achieve its intended goal, according to leading scientists in the weather community. The effort, some say, lacks the necessary push for innovation.

Ahead of World Wetlands Day, research shows how protecting mangroves can mitigate sea level rise – while also helping them adapt to its effects.

Even minor amounts of human activity can increase nutrient concentrations in fresh waters that can damage the environment, according to a new study.

Around the world, people have seen a few unexpected benefits from staying home to contain the new coronavirus. Blue skies made a rare appearance in Chinese cities, a change of pace from the smog. Clear water began flowing through canals in Venice, Italy.

With spring underway, thousands of brown pelicans are returning to nest on Queen Bess Island — a bird rookery island south of New Orleans in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay. What may seem like an ordinary annual event is actually quite remarkable, and a promising sign of recovery and resilience for Louisiana’s state bird.

According to Larry Couch, chief of the Panama City Beach Fire Rescue, the department’s eight seasonal lifeguards are in the midst of training to protect the city’s portion of the Gulf Coast.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, March 12 -- The Environmental Defense Fund issued the following news release:

The overall U.S. rig count is down 44 rigs from the previous week to 728, with oil rigs down 40 to 624, gas rigs down four at 102, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at two, according to the latest numbers from Baker Hughes.

Crowds of more than 10 still gathered Saturday on Front Beach in Ocean Springs despite the threat of the new coronavirus.

SAN LEON — Joaquin Padilla steered his white oyster boat, MISS KOSOVARE, in deliberate, counter-clockwise circles on an unusually placid Galveston Bay. The boat’s oyster dredge — a chain mesh net with a heavy steel frame - dragged on the port side of the boat along the floor of the bay, raking up dozens of oysters of various sizes.

GALVESTON -- In an unprecedented move, the city on Sunday closed beaches to the public and banned vehicular traffic from the West End beaches as it continues to deter visitors and public gatherings.

State and city leaders have been on a mission lately to publicize the extent of the coronavirus crisis in Louisiana and specifically in the New Orleans area, which is experiencing an alarming number of illnesses and deaths and has seen its tourism-reliant economy grind to a halt. This is a good thing. Attention must be paid, and it belatedly is.

Ecosystem-based planning can help decision-makers account for a changing ocean environment

Living in Geologic Time: An unintentional adventure in the River of Grass shows how Florida has changed dramatically over 15,000 years of human habitation.

Traffickers in Florida are shipping thousands of land and freshwater turtles from Florida to Asia.

Residents don’t want shrimpers who violated land-use rules to continue operating in their neighborhood.

Microbial genomics techniques came of age following the Deepwater Horizon spill, offering researchers unparalleled insights into how ecosystems respond to such environmental disasters.

The city of Galveston is considering telling vacation rental guests to leave the island in an effort to encourage tourists to stay home from the normally popular island destination as officials work to reduce the spread of coronavirus.

The spring of the coronavirus feels a lot like the summer of oil to residents along the Gulf Coast.

A compilation of beach closure stories by CNT

Nowadays it’s noteworthy to learn of any bipartisan measures in Washington, especially when it appears to benefit a handful of states.

Changing climate and land use practices are bringing extended periods of high water to the lower Mississippi River. New management practices are needed to protect people, industry, and the land.

Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority on Wednesday approved a $1.08 billion spending plan for next fiscal year in a “virtual” meeting held online.

Rates for deepwater leases could be lowered from 18.75% to 12.5%. Interior decided against similar proposal in 2018. Lower rates for shallower acreage show mixed results

The Bayport and Barbours Cut terminals will fully reopen Friday.

Community activists in St. James Parish, Louisiana, are demanding land permits for a $9.4 billion plastics facility be revoked after archaeologists may have discovered the project is scheduled to be built atop several slave burial grounds, a report shows.

Preliminary 2020 Atlantic hurricane season forecasts are suggesting an above average hurricane season .

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released the first annual report on the progress made in mapping U.S. ocean, coastal and Great Lakes waters, the agency said in a release.

Viewed from one end, where a three-story hinge links to a massive steel lattice, the Maeslant storm surge barrier resembles three crane towers toppled across one another. From the opposite end, nearly 280 yards away, it’s an imposing white wall, like a drive-in movie screen stretched the length of 2½ football fields.

GALVESTON, Texas – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District announced today that it has completed the Brazos River Fort Bend Flood Risk Management Feasibility Study and is recommending that no federal action be taken.

Florida's famed South Beach is to close to prevent the spread of coronavirus as spring break revelers continue to party at the popular college getaway spot.

The Sunshine State faces a dearth of tourism dollars due to closures of Disney parks and other destinations, but hoteliers hope for a return of the staycation.

Dating back to even before Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana has gazed across the Atlantic for guidance from the Netherlands, an early adopter of large-scale interventions to prevent flooding.

American Queen Steamboat Co. Saturday said it would suspend all ship operations and resume service April 12 because of coronavirus problems nationwide.

Stephen Sagrera remembers the first time he saw one. The Vermilion Bay marsh went silent as his father cut the boat motor. In front of them, a craggy, reptilian head glided across the canal with the grace of a creature that’s dodged extinction for 35 million years.

A group of people were out on a banana boat run by Coastal Beach Services, who manages beach amenities at Four Points by Sheraton Destin-Fort Walton Beach, when they spotted the mother and calf.

“Be a nuisance where it counts. Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics – but never give up.” -Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Still recovering from Hurricane Harvey, Port Aransas may face a future under Big Oil that some fear will destroy the idyllic vacation spot treasured by generations of Texans.

The first step toward the construction of a new Bayside park in Gilchrist, Texas (Galveston County), is the filling in of the Rollover Pass in the Bolivar Peninsula, a $7.4 million project that began last October when crews from Brizo Construction LLC commenced its operations to fill in the 200-ft. wide and 1,600-ft. long strait (canal).

ENGLEWOOD — Boulder Pointe condominium owners are among the Manasota Key property owners celebrating the start of the beach nourishment project this week.

NOAA scientists plunge over the deck of Research Vessel Manta and in pairs descend the clear, blue water of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Floating above the underwater salt domes that rise from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, the divers survey the conditions and perform critical monitoring of the reefs below.

One of the most visible groups in the fight to restore and protect Louisiana’s vanishing coastal wetlands said today that it is ceasing operations.

The latest beach renourishment plan for Lido Key Beach still doesn’t have a start date, but officials say they know what is needed to protect the shore for the next five years.

If there is support for the Draper Lake development, it didn’t show up in Freeport on Wednesday to stand with David Smith, the representative from Innerlight Engineering Corporation charged with defending the planned development before a room full of detractors.

Ready to hit Miami Beach for Spring Break? The city just announced measures to ensure locals, visitors, and tourists can enjoy the beaches while maintaining safety and residential quality of life.

Community poll rejects development as a tourist destination, but a group of residents and business owners is pressing a ‘vision plan’ for just that.

A state move to divert taxes meant to aid tourism drew widespread ire from industry leaders here Tuesday, but an official rebuke from Miami-Dade lawmakers failed to advance.

Mississippi has faced historic floods in the first two months of 2020. A new image from NOAA and NASA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite, show the flooding along the rivers in the region, particularly the Mississippi, Pearl and Pascagoula rivers.

As authorities struggle to find whoever shot a dolphin and stabbed another along the Florida coast this year, a federal agency has nearly tripled a reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the cruel killings.

Opening arguments ended Monday in Texas in the highest profile criminal case ever brought against a company and its employees for allegedly failing to adequately prepare for the effects of climate change.

If the actual bids come in higher, the city would have to foot the rest of the bill.

Say “climate change” too loudly, though, and you’ll get some looks. Many Houstonians still feel like they’re in a standoff with environmentalists who would love to put the Oil and Gas Capital of the World out of business. And anyway the city is booming, with cranes as common as traffic jams on its ever-widening highways. With a population up 11% since 2010, Houston is destined to overtake Chicago as the U.S.’s third-largest city—unless something goes horribly wrong.

A small beach town is on the verge of making a major difference.

The Tampa Bay Estuary Program monitors a muddy thicket across from a snack shack, one of nine watch sites in the region.

After 2019’s unprecedented flood, the Mississippi River is rising again, causing anxiety for those living and working in its path. While impacted communities and fisheries received much attention, people have been less aware of the impacts to another critical industry: navigation.

Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer, is trying to protect the city from a climate disaster.

This week’s cooler weather brought some rough conditions for our coastline.

A Florida House committee Monday unanimously endorsed a bill requiring municipalities and state agencies building structures on beaches or in tropical storm flood zones to first conduct a sea level impact study.

The Gulf, science has established beyond a reasonable doubt, is coming for the rest of us.

Phillips 66 and Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd have announced that they have formed a 50/50 joint venture, Bluewater Texas Terminal LLC ("Bluewater Texas"), to develop an offshore deepwater port project located approximately 21 nautical miles east of the entrance to the Port of Corpus Christi.

It’s all but assumed this island will one day disappear beneath the waves.

Ben Depp is a New Orleans-based freelance photographer with a fixation on Louisiana's disappearing wetlands.

“Not everyone knows why it’s called the Treasure Coast,′ said Jonah Martinez, a treasure hunter from Port St. Lucie. ‘This is why’

Florida Republicans have tentatively embraced climate change even though it puts them at odds with President Donald Trump. As the election nears, political watchers say one side is going to acquiesce in order to win.

We can do better than this.

The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) discussed the proposed Legislative bill creating a Nature Coast Aquatic Preserve, and what it means for the future of local decision-making and state funding. Hernando county has several state-funded aquatics projects already pending, and the future of those were also discussed.

Collier County's coastal residents and property owners can get an up-close look at new draft preliminary flood maps at three upcoming public open houses

″(It was) one of the first times the private and for-hire sectors came together. (It) proved that there is strength in cooperation. It was a tough three-day trip on a bus, but I would definitely do it again.”

Persistent heavy rains soaked the Mississippi River watershed in the first two months of 2020. The result has been bulging rivers from Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico. Near-record flooding has brought two weeks of misery to the states of Mississippi and Tennessee, and high water is expected to arrive next week in New Orleans.