Federal

Barry Myers, President Trump’s controversial nominee to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has withdrawn from consideration due to health concerns, an administration official confirmed Wednesday evening.

Coastal states are turning to resilience planning to confront extreme weather and climate change. New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida have all hired chief resilience officers to oversee their states’ resilience strategies. Louisiana has been a leader in coastal resilience for more than a decade.

BATON ROUGE, LA - Today, the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources passed the Conservation of America’s Shoreline Terrain and Aquatic Life (COASTAL) Act which would increase Louisiana’s share of qualified Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas revenues under the Gulf of Mexico Energy and Security Act (GOMESA) of 2006.

NOAA is seeking proposals for 2020 grant awards through our Community-based Restoration Program.

NOAA is initiating a five-year process to end all traditional paper nautical chart production and is seeking the public’s feedback via a Federal Register Notice published on November 15, 2019.

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Senate panel has advanced legislation that would give Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states a bigger cut of the offshore oil and gas revenues the federal government receives.

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The U.S. government’s oceans and waterways agency will provide $30 million to improve coastal resilience, officials said, aiming to reduce the impacts of worsening storms, flooding and rising seas in nearly half of U.S. states.

The Government Accountability Office calls in a report for EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to state directly that dealing with the rising risks of seas, storms or wildfires breaching Superfund sites under climate change is part of the agency’s mission

An agreement among Southeast Asian leaders this month to fight floating plastics in the South China Sea and surrounding waterways marks an upswing in cooperation among countries that normally compete over sovereignty.

Both Massachusetts senators are again calling for NOAA Fisheries to investigate Canada’s North Atlantic right whale protections and, if found lacking, consider banning imports of some Canadian fishery products into the United States.

Patrick DePoe was in high school the last time his Native American tribe in Washington state was allowed to hunt whales. He was on a canoe that greeted the crew towing in the body of a gray whale. His shop class worked to clean the bones and reassemble the skeleton, which hangs in a tribal museum.

SANTA CRUZ — Legislation put forward by a Central Coast congressman would create a new designation for coastal colleges and universities on the frontlines of climate change research and education.

China and other countries are racing to be the first to mine trillions of dollars worth of metals used in cell phones, supercomputers and more, while the U.S. is on the sidelines. 60 Minutes reports, Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. PT on CBS

Between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs on, in and above the Marshall Islands. Today, a massive structure called Runit Dome holds more than 3.1 million cubic feet of U.S.-produced radioactive soil and debris.

As a decade comes to an end, the clock ticks down on the time available for the UK to meet an array of long standing environmental targets, from recycling to air pollution

Governments around the world must reconsider coastal flooding policies, strategy and investment decisions because sea level rise is likely to be far greater than previously estimated, a group of UK-based engineers has said.

Rising seas will endanger more than 300 million people in the next 30 years, according to a startling new study published in late October in the journal Nature Communications. By 2050, the impact of rising sea levels will be much more severe than previously thought, “threatening to all but erase some of the world’s great coastal cities” in low-lying areas from Egypt’s Nile Delta to southern and eastern China to Southeast Asia, as The New York Times put it. One of those cities is Ho Chi Minh City, the economic hub of Vietnam, which could be underwater along with the rest of southern Vietnam by mid-century, as these new projections suggest. Many coastal regions across Southeast Asia would be doomed. Yet despite this imminent danger, Southeast Asian countries are lagging behind in preparing for the deluge.

Disaster aid legislation is stalled in the North Carolina General Assembly as House and Senate negotiators work through differences in competing versions of the bill.

The proposed critical habitats will not affect fishing or recreational boating

NORTH WILDWOOD — There’s a makeover in store for the beaches of North Wildwood, Avalon and Stone Harbor.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - A new ruling from the federal government could save coastal communities a lot of money on beach renourishment costs, according to a press release from Congressman David Rouzer.

The Government looks set to push forward with a series of new environmental levies to encourage behavioural change and bring in additional funding to tackle waste blackspots.

'We're going to be living in times that call for pretty radical solutions,' one expert says.

Today, the Chamber of Shipping released a Report Card on the progress of the Oceans Protection Plan (OPP) as it relates to commercial shipping. Overall, the fifty-plus programs under the OPP have had varied levels of success. Certain programs have suffered from a lack of resources and a lack of an integrated approach between Federal Departments. Additionally, there has been little intent to connect OPP programs with Government reviews associated with port governance, and supply chain efficiency and productivity, missing an opportunity to align the OPP with trade objectives.

Iberia Parish President Larry Richard is asking the public’s help in supporting legislative attempts to secure GOMESA Funds.

Want a selfie with a Hawaiian monk seal. Don’t get too close. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers recently conducted a of how social media can play a role not only in monitoring the public’s interaction with endangered monks seals in Hawaii, but in research, education and conservation.

Oceans cover nearly three-quarters of the Earth, and it's getting crowded out on the water.

Commitment Strengthens Sustainability of Ocean Economy, Enhances Health of Planet, and Advances Global Economic Security

Maine’s primary trade group for the lobster fishing industry has rethought its position on a plan to protect the right whale population.

The Trump administration is rolling back protections for endangered California fish species, a move long sought by a group of wealthy farmers that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt continued to lobby for months before he began working for the administration, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Advancing technology in ocean-based sensors has become crucial to weather forecasting and understanding the environment. But those things generating all the data need electrical power. Now a prize competition by the Energy Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeks new ways to power ocean observing platforms. Alejandro Moreno is director of water powered technologies at DOE. He talked with Federal Drive with Tom Temin about the sorts of technologies the agencies are looking for, and why a prize challenge seemed like a good fit.

NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is revising the management plan for Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Public scoping is the first phase in the revision process, and the public can comment through November 15 on the scope of issues and programs to be considered within an updated plan. Comments may be submitted online, by mail, or in person at the public scoping meetings.