As pushback by waterfront homeowners increases, VA & MD convene workgroups to deal with aquaculture leasing backlogs and disputes

In this Aug. 1, 2018, file photo, debris washed into the Chesapeake Bay from record rainfall accumulates around a sailboat in Annapolis, Md. An annual report on the Chesapeake Bay says pollution from unusually heavy rains in 2018 contributed to the first decline in a decade in the overall health of the nation's largest estuary.

WANCHESE, N.C. -- South of the Virginia border, the shores off Corolla have become an Outer Banks hot spot to catch winter shrimp. "It's kind of new, and it's kind of related to the water warming," Mirabilio said. "Everybody's chasing them north."

Earthjustice and our partners are working to prevent future hog waste floods in the area hit hardest by Hurricane Florence.

EMERALD ISLE, Carteret County — If you've been to any of North Carolina's beaches since Hurricane Florence, you may have noticed some of the sand dunes have washed away.

MASONBORO ISLAND, NC (WECT) - A team with the UNCW Marine Mammal Stranding Program were called to Masonboro Island Sunday after reports of a stranded whale. Upon arrival, the team encountered a young Sei Whale, which is a type of Baleen Whale. The young, very thin whale should've been with its mother and hadn't eaten for a while. The marine biology professor says a plastic garbage bag was found in the animal's mouth during a necropsy.

NORFOLK, VA. -- What are said to be the largest cranes to operate at a U.S. commercial port arrived Monday in Virginia, marking the latest effort to accommodate the increasingly mammoth container ships that underpin international trade.

To combat rising seas, a Norfolk man is floating a radical idea: What if instead of flooding, a house could simply float?

By the time Folly Beach codifies a set of beach- and marshfront regulations meant to bring development on the long-exempt island roughly in line with state law, it will have been almost a year since the Edge of America declared what was to be a six-month building moratorium.

More than 50 properties on Wrightsville Beach’s north end will be assessed costs to help dredge and maintain Mason Inlet, which separates the island’s north end from Figure Eight Island.

BOSTON -- The Secretary of Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Matthew Beaton is partnering with shellfish stakeholders to establish a Massachusetts Shellfish Initiative (MSI) Task Force. The Task Force had its first meeting today, January 2, and includes representatives of commercial shellfishermen, shellfish farmers, recreational harvesters, restoration groups, and municipalities, as well as legislative and executive office members, in an effort to provide comprehensive stakeholder participation.

UD professors survey beachgoers on potential implications for offshore wind farms. As the United States moves closer to developing offshore wind farms, one of the most important questions for coastal communities is how those wind farms are going to affect recreation and tourism.

North Carolina’s Attorney General Josh Stein, along with attorneys general from Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, Virginia and New York have moved to take their own action stop the proposed use of airguns to survey the Atlantic Ocean floor for oil and gas.

Carolina Beach initially threatened to use eminent domain the acquire all private land around Freeman Park, but later rescinded the idea, opting instead for temporary use to help renourish the beach --- but private LLCs are contesting that in court.Michael Praats

ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. (WNCT) - - The town of Atlantic Beach is stepping up its efforts to provide accommodation to visitors and locals who use the town's public beach access.

The storm caused at least $119 million in damage to beaches in the state’s southeastern corner. Nobody knows how long it will take to repair the damage Hurricane Florence inflicted on North Carolina’s beaches.

Attorneys general from nine Mid-Atlantic coastal US states are joining environmental and other organizations’ lawsuit against the federal government for issuing incidental harassment authorizations to five geophysical contractors seeking to conduct the first offshore oil and gas seismic tests in the region since the 1980s, Maryland AG Brian E. Frosh (D) announced on Dec. 20.

Elaine Luria, the Congresswoman-elect from Virginia's 2nd District, met with Eastern Shore officials on Monday at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Wachapreague.

The Baltimore County Council unanimously approved a $78 million grant Monday night to fund infrastructure at the 3,100-acre Tradepoint Atlantic development.

While the Trump administration’s report last month detailing the effects of rising global temperatures said Maryland had begun feeling the consequences of climate change, lawmakers and state agencies already are taking steps aimed at combating it.

EMERALD ISLE, Carteret County — Shortly after Emerald Isle Beach got some incredible news by being named best beach in our state, Hurricane Florence ruined all of that. Literally.

The Marine Corps is looking at a hefty construction cost to repair or replace hundreds of buildings at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune damaged during Hurricane Florence.

With the 2018 holiday season in full swing, nearly a third of Wrightsville Beach’s hotel rooms remain unavailable for booking because of damage caused by Hurricane Florence.

CAROLINA BEACH -- The federal government will soon start a $18 million project to rebuild Pleasure Island’s beaches damaged by hurricanes Matthew and Florence, with Washington picking up most of the tab.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — A regulation in Virginia's new building code could alter the look and feel of some neighborhoods near the state's coast in the coming decades.

OCEAN ISLE BEACH – New boundaries and rules governing development at about half of North Carolina’s inlets may be adopted next year. Currently a little more than 2,800 acres of land is designated within inlet hazard areas, or IHA, boundaries at 10 of the 19 active inlets in the state.

THE TRUMP administration’s decision last month to allow seismic air gun testing in the Atlantic Ocean — a substantial step toward opening the area for oil and gas exploration — represents a profound threat to the economy and life of Hampton Roads.

CAPE CARTERET — The town has received two state grants, totaling more than $180,000, to help buy a 1.47-acre waterfront tract and develop a kayak, paddleboard and canoe launch facility along Pettiford Creek off Highway 58.

After removing some of the optional jobs, such as grooming freshly renourished beaches, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $3.3-million contract to Southwind Construction Co. for work on area waterways.

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay will soon get a boost in funding.

OCEAN ISLE BEACH – Getting permission to dump sand in federally maintained dredged material disposal areas may not be entirely impossible, but a nationwide policy heavily restricts access for North Carolina coastal municipalities and businesses that have long relied on the sites.

The American Sportfishing Association (ASA) has announced that Michael Waine, most recently a Fisheries Management Analyst with NOAA Fisheries, has joined the ASA staff as Atlantic Fisheries Policy Director.

Today meteorologists can forecast a hurricane’s track, wind speeds, rainfall, storm surge, and other details days in advance of landfall. “What we do now at five days [out], we dreamed of doing 20 years ago at two days,” says Ken Graham, director of the NOAA National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla.

After months of delays, the Trump administration announced Friday that it had approved seismic testing for oil and natural gas reserves along the US East Coast, a necessary step in opening US Atlantic waters to drilling.

n addition to harming sea life, acoustic tests - booms 10 to 12 seconds apart for days and sometimes months - can disrupt thriving commercial fisheries. State officials on the East Coast say drilling threatens beach tourism that has flourished in the absence of oil production.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division issued long-awaited incidental harassment authorizations to five geophysical contractors to conduct the first oil and gas seismic evaluations on the US Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf since the 1980s. Oil and gas associations welcomed the agency’s Nov. 30 move while environmental organizations strongly criticized it.

EMERALD ISLE — Carteret County received only one bid for a major beach nourishment project planned for this winter, and will have to wait a couple weeks to see if another comes in before officials can consider awarding a contract.

The Town of North Topsail Beach, NC and the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission thank the citizens who contributed to the photo gallery of the oceanfront dunes both before and after Hurricane Florence. A side-by-side comparison of before/after dune photos has been compiled.

Boats in North Carolina that sank after being pummeled by Hurricane Florence were raised by salvage companies—and then sunk again.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - If you head to a restaurant in Virginia Beach, you might just find freshly caught Virginia shrimp on the menu. That's thanks to an experimental fishing permit given to two local fishermen.

Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report urging immediate action to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius in an effort to avoid environmental harm.

Many are finding themselves newly homeless months after the hurricane hit.

To serve larger container ships coming into the Port of Wilmington, N.C. Ports is seeking to move forward with the second phase of its turning basin expansion.

On the heels of a political setback in the November election and public sentiment rekindled against offshore drilling, an oil industry group released a report saying the work could bring South Carolina $1.6 billion in tax revenue alone.

New Hanover County tourism officials are working to recover the local travel industry, post-Hurricane Florence. As the region continues to recover from the September storm, the Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) recently announced a plan to get the industry back on track.

FOLLY BEACH — Two tropical storms this season arrived in such quick succession that local officials may not even try to figure out how much sand Tropical Storm Michael blew away. The city’s renourishment project, ongoing since the spring, already had been extended after Hurricane Florence. That storm swept 200,000 cubic yards of sand off the beach in the midst of a project to pump material out of the Folly River and back onto the beach, particularly the city’s vulnerable east end.

Warmer winters, rather than overharvesting, caused the steep decline of oysters and other commercially valuable shellfish in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere along the Atlantic coast, according to a controversial new study that’s getting pushback from some scientists.

Hampton Roads is getting more than $3.7 million in federal grants for projects to strengthen coastlines against the impacts of storms and sea level rise. The grants to the James River Association, the city of Norfolk and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science will go to build living shorelines in Hampton and Norfolk and bolster the resiliency of Virginia’s barrier islands.

“We are getting increasing evidence that, in addition to a strong economy, some of this volume spike may be accounted for by customers advancing shipments to avoid pending tariffs slated to take effect in January,” said SCPA President and CEO Jim Newsome.

S.C. Ports Authority (SCPA) President and CEO Jim Newsome last week told 600 customers and leaders outlined the organization’s successes and strategic infrastructure investments to continue growth during the annual State of the Port address at the Charleston Area Convention Center.

A constitutional amendment on the ballot Tuesday would give localities the option to offer tax breaks to property owners in areas facing recurring flooding.

There will be no reduced-price beach badges for residents since it would be breaking the law to offer them, said Mayor John G. Ducey during the most recent Township Council meeting.

Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it has awarded $348,648 to the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to improve and stabilize living shorelines, and stream and wetlands restoration projects in nontidal wetlands.

The Navy is expanding its mitigation areas off the East Coast for the endangered right whale.

Compared to all the coastal states from Virginia to Florida, the cost of South Carolina’s saltwater fishing license is, simply put, ridiculously low.

The Federal cost-share for the Carolina Beach project will be $4.27 million with the State funding $2.30 million for a total cost of $6.57 million. The Federal cost-share for the Kure Beach project will be $7.95 million with the State funding $4.28 million for a total of $12.23 million.

Wilmington and Southeastern North Carolina officials hoping FEMA will reimburse most expenses, from the cost of debris removal to repairing damaged government buildings

Other major expenses include rental and purchase of stormwater pumps, hoses and generators to augment those the town already had in place.

The rules will now go to a 60-day public comment period, running from Monday, Feb. 20, to Thursday, April 20.

The event is a 100-mile challenge

Offshore drilling has become one of the largest issues debated by Lowcountry candidates for Congress. Why?

Indirect effects are drops in B2B transactions. Induced effects are payroll and personal income drops and loss of commerce. Resiliency efforts reflect funding needs.

The federal funding will go toward building bulkheading that officials say is needed to prevent future damage to the wastewater treatment plant and electrical substation.

Biologists say a $38 million restoration project at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge is benefiting a slew of species, including piping plovers.

Beach renourishment delayed

First Matthew, then Florence.

The stretch of beach, which is currently owned by a Lido Beach condo, is one of the last private beaches on the Barrier Island

An opinion piece on coastal development regulations.

At its October meeting, the Dare County Tourism Board moved forward with two initiatives.