Science

The U.S. has sustained 254 weather and climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (including CPI adjustment to 2019). The total cost of these 254 events exceeds $1.7 trillion.

A team set out from West Palm Beach this week to test the coral in the Bahamas after Cat 5 Hurricane Dorian. The Northern Bahamas relies on its coral reefs for food and tourism dollars.

The position has been created after a bill in the Florida House created a new initiative for mitigating red tide.

Dead fish have washed up on a beach in Marco Island.

Those eyes in the skies can serve as public health heroes by passing along important information that’s gathered from the vantage point of outer space.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A document discussed Monday by the state’s Blue-Green Algae Task Force should be viewed, members said, as a broad roadmap for lawmakers with the 2020 legislative session less than 100 days away.

October is too early for Christmas sales, songs and decorations. And it should be too late in most places for summer weather, summer wear, and summer hurricanes, right?

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.

A nearly 4,000-year-old burial site found off the coast of Georgia hints at ties between hunter-gatherers on opposite sides of North America, according to research led by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Alaska’s northern fur seal population for three decades has been classified as depleted, but the marine mammals are showing up in growing numbers at an unlikely location: a tiny island that forms the tip of an active undersea volcano.

The Jason-2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM), the third in a U.S.-European series of satellite missions designed to measure sea surface height, successfully ended its science mission on Oct. 1. NASA and its mission partners made the decision to end the mission after detecting deterioration in the spacecraft's power system.

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.

The proposed extermination of hordes of house mice on the Farallon Islands would protect a fast-diminishing population of rare sea birds by halting rampant, unnatural predation by owls, said a study released Monday.

The red tide that plagued Florida for 15 months — killing marine life and causing respiratory problems for humans — is back, The Associated Press reported Saturday.

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.

> A new UN report on the effects of climate change on the ocean and the cryosphere makes some dire predictions > Lounge takes a look at how India will be affected by the warming seas and melting Himalayan glaciers

Seagrass meadows put down deep roots, persisting in the same spot for hundreds and possibly thousands of years, a new study shows.

When Hurricane Dorian roared up the East Coast during the first week of September, the places where people live and work in several states were under threat. The first line of protection against storm damage was made up of coastal vegetated ecosystems, including nearly 300,000 acres of salt marshes in Georgia.

The reefs have never had to endure such conditions. Marine scientists remain optimistic but warn that time is running out for society to step up.

Tropical cyclones – storms that bring strong, rotating winds and rain, and which can intensify into hurricanes or typhoons – affect coastal regions around the world. Our research team, centered at the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences, has analyzed a 120-year record of tropical cyclones affecting coastal North Carolina, and found that six of the seven wettest storms over this time period occurred in the past two decades.

Inundations after Alaskan earthquake in 1964 may have transported disease-causing C. gattii fungus from shore waters into coastal forests

When it comes to feeding, corals have a few tricks up their sleeve. Most of their nutrients come from microscopic algae living inside of them, but if those algae aren't creating enough sustenance, corals can use their tentacles to grab and eat tiny prey swimming nearby.

Rising ocean temperatures have long been linked to negative impacts for marine life, but a team has recently found that the long-term outlook for many marine species is much more complex -- and possibly bleaker -- than scientists previously believed.

Scientists are using evidence left behind by ancient hurricanes to show how storms behaved in the past and how climate change might affect them in the future.

Capetonians don’t know who to blame for the disappearance of their great white sharks: The orcas that eat them, the fishermen who sell their prey to Australia for use in fish-and-chips shops or gradual ecological change.

Oceans have spared the world the worst of climate change, but those days may be over soon, according to a new United Nations report on climate change.

In response to local and global climate stressors, a type of bright red bacteria has proliferated on reefs worldwide often snuffing the life out of precious corals and changing the reef ecosystem.

New research provide clear links between storm-water discharge, which sometimes includes wet-weather sewer overflow (WWSO) events, and the presence of AbR in microorganisms living in urban beach habitats.

The one-of-a-kind Port Moody research facility is in jeopardy, just as researchers say we need it most

Four whales were found stranded on Edisto Beach around 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning, according to Chief George Brothers of Edisto Police.

Climate scientists say seabed carbon storage could be a new ally to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a volume greater than all the carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere from the planet’s coal-burning power stations.

On September 18, Arctic sea ice reached its likely minimum extent for 2019. The minimum ice extent was effectively tied for second lowest in the satellite record, along with 2007 and 2016, reinforcing the long-term downward trend in Arctic ice extent. Sea ice extent will now begin its seasonal increase through autumn and winter.

Stranded or orphaned baby sea otters have been given a new lease on life—and a mission: restoring damaged ecosystems along the California coast.

Rosa and Selka get lots of attention in their starring roles at the public daily feedings at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, especially during Sea Otter Awareness Week.

The draining of Florida’s Everglades started in the late 1800s as an effort to convert the wetlands into land fit for agricultural, residential and commercial development.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists euthanized two pygmy killer whales Tuesday after the mammals stranded themselves on Sugar Beach in Kihei, Maui. It's near where other whales beached themselves last month.

IPCC predicts increased deadly heatwaves and losses of sea ice

Growing coastal flooding is inevitable, and damage to corals and other marine life has already been unleashed. But scientists say the world still has time to avert even more severe consequences.

Lift a shell from the sand to your ear and everyone knows you can hear the sea. But listen carefully enough and you can hear shells in the sand too. Sand, it turns out, has a signature sound of its own, and now scientists have found a way to tune in.

Coral reefs are vital around the world as they not only provide a habitat for fish but food and medicine for humans.

Hurricane Dorian spawned a 9-foot wall of water earlier this month, sweeping across the northern end of Cape Lookout National Seashore on North Carolina's Outer Banks, swamping historic Portsmouth Village, and slicing up the seashore's barrier islands into islets.

The 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Center has been challenging the ground rules for an insurance industry organization that dispatches pilots to take aerial photographs immediately after natural disasters.

The Bay Foundation (TBF) and California State Parks have released the Malibu Lagoon Restoration and Enhancement Project Final Comprehensive Monitoring Report (Year 6), indicating that the restoration project has been determined to be wholly successful as assessed against project goals and success criteria.

Shrimpers want to explain first-hand the impact of large-scale farming on their lives, the environment, and ecology.

Researchers say the Pacific Ocean is seeing the second-largest marine heatwave tracked since the 1980s, touching from the Alaskan coast to Hawaii.

September is national preparedness month and, for many Alaskans, that means thinking about tsunamis.

Antarctica is known for its tempestuous weather, and the surface winds surrounding this icy southern continent are some of the strongest and most persistent on Earth.

A state task force to help determine strategies for researching and mitigating harmful algae blooms met Thursday in St. Petersburg. It’s the first time the group has met since Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the initiative in November.

NOAA has begun twice weekly reports for areas of the state, including Sarasota and Manatee counties, after higher than average levels were detected near Lee County.

The novel result of this analysis is that climate-mediated coral disease mortality was more than an order of magnitude more deadly than even the largest marine construction project performed in the USA over the past decade.

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.

What in the name of Neptune's beard is that thing? A ghost? An alien? The ghost of an alien?

In the fall of 2014, marine ecologist Jennifer Fisher was stunned when jellyfish and tiny crustaceans typically found in warmer waters filled her nets off the coast of Oregon. The odd catch was just one sign of the arrival of a vast patch of warm water that came to be known as “The Blob”—a massive marine heat wave that lasted 3 years and dramatically disrupted ecosystems and fisheries along North America’s Pacific coast.

Agnes Anderson, doctoral student of the School of Natural Sciences and Health of Tallinn University, recently defended her doctoral dissertation, in which she explores how the changing climate and human influence change the aeolian coastal dune landscapes. The dissertation concluded that the coastal dune landscapes are losing their distinctive features and diversity due to those influences.

The largest study of its kind has identified where and how to save coral reef communities in the Indo Pacific, according to an international group of scientists, including University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers Erik Franklin, Camilo Mora and Kuʻulei Rodgers and others from conservation NGOs, government agencies and universities.

For sea urchins, ocean acidification magnifies the toxicity of cocaine.

How Texans are taking on plastic pollution—one piece at a time.

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.

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.

Hurricanes like Dorian and Maria may be disastrous for humans and their property, but some fish have actually evolved to thrive in severe weather.

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.

Hurricane Kiko continued to track west through the Eastern Pacific Ocean when NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed overhead and provided a view of the storm. Satellite imagery revealed an elongated shape, which indicated wind shear was still affecting Kiko.

Last week, Florida A&M University (FAMU) in Tallahassee received almost $3.4 million in federal funds to continue studies on oceans and coastal communities.

As hospitals grapple with the growing problem of superbugs, a threat that could cost 10 million lives a year by 2050, new research suggests that humans aren’t the only animals that these serious, difficult-to-treat infections could affect.

Two years after hurricanes Irma and Maria ripped through the islands, optimistic nature lovers are quick to point out signs of recovery – sea grape trees are once more putting out fruit; at least one species of humming birds is frequenting bird feeders; and snorkelers can find spots where schools of fish thrive and sea fans wave in the currents.

While collecting water samples and plankton in Tampa Bay, researchers discovered a high concentration of microplastics, which are known to disrupt the marine food chain.

Studying ecosystems affected by climate change takes an emotional toll on researchers.

In late 2016, scientists aboard the U.K. research ship James Cook arrived 500 kilometers off the coast of northwest Africa, seeking two treasures joined by a curse.

A study recently published from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds the seven-year-old network of underwater parks are allowing marine species to reproduce in safe places.

On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared an Unusual Mortality Event for several species of ice seals in Arctic waters. Since June 2018, NOAA has documented 282 dead seals in the Bering and Chukchi Seas.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's vast collection of deep-sea video footage is revealing new insights on some of the ocean’s most mysterious species. In a recent study, researchers compiled data from 18 years of rare video observations on deep-water skates.

The strange shapes rising out of the sand are hard to make sense of from a distance. Sun-bleached and jagged against the skyline, they resemble antlers of enormous deer, or perhaps the splintered bones of giants.

Plastic waste and microplastics have been found in the sea along the entire Northern Sea Route, Russian scientists confirm. The results of a recent expedition may provide crucial information about how some of the world’s most remote ocean areas are affected by the global issue of microplastics.

This is one hungry fish.

Critics say the New Zealand government’s proposed conservation plan falls short of what is needed to ensure the survival of these dolphins.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A conservation group says the number of whales entangled in crab fishing gear along the West Coast dropped by nearly half this year after a lawsuit settlement ended California's commercial Dungeness crab season early.

Sam Urato was 5 years old when his family loaded into a station wagon and fled Hilton Head Island ahead of Hurricane Hugo.

Newly digitized vintage film doubles how far back scientists can peer into the history of underground ice in Antarctica.

The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Atmospheric Science Department and UAH’s Rotorcraft Systems Engineering and Simulation Center (RSESC) have teamed up to offer University of Georgia scientists a unique drone-gathered data set for their coastal disturbance studies.

This year a team of Haida, federal government, industry, and academic partners have transformed a stretch of urchin barrens to lush kelp forests, improving habitat for abalone and rockfish as they implement Gwaii Haanas’ newest ecosystem conservation and restoration project: Chiixuu Tll iinasdll: Nurturing Seafood to Grow.

Sharks are magnificent predators that represent an impressive evolutionary success story. They've swum the oceans for more than 400 million years, diversifying over time to inhabit rivers and lakes as well. About 500 known species are alive today, and there are likely even more yet to be discovered.

Four snowy plovers were found dead in the SVRA park in the final weeks of August, according to Senior Environmental Scientist Ronnie Glick.

NOAA researchers at our Northwestern Hawaiian Islands field camps discovered two exciting monk seal pupping events in 2019. Both were on Lisianski Island.

This NASA visualization shows a rapid decline in Arctic Sea ice over the last 35 years. In the 1st week of January 1988, over 1.2 million sq. miles were covered by sea ice 4 years of age or older, compared with just over 44,000 sq. miles in the same week in 2019.

The amount of plastic fragments in Santa Barbara Basin sediments has been increasing exponentially since the end of World War II, according to a study by researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.

A special two-part report written and photographed by Spike Johnson in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. The second part, to be published next week, will focus on Midwest agriculture.

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.

Scientists find slower growth in Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System corals

The ocean may be known as the big blue, but it’s the green waters around the UK that are just as valuable for marine biology.

Prehistoric squee!

Researchers are learning how to cope with the arrival of the sargassum’s “brown tide."

SEATTLE -- "The Blob" is back as a sequel...

Three new viruses -- including one from a group of viruses never before shown to infect fish -- have been discovered in endangered Chinook and sockeye salmon populations

Five whales died, including four that were euthanized, after a mass stranding Thursday on a beach on the Hawaii island of Maui.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is facing threats due to ocean warming. 91 percent of the coral reef had been bleached at least once during three bleaching events of the past two decades

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Decision makers face choices about how to design risk management strategies to protect coastal populations from rising sea levels and storm surges. Finding a solid strategy is difficult and only complicated by a warming climate, but a team of Penn State researchers has identified five factors that can better characterize risk management options.

We went into the depths of the ocean with a scientist seeking to understand how frozen gas deposits might respond in a rapidly warming world.

Farming seaweed, then sinking the mature plants to the bottom of the ocean, could be an effective way to fight warming. So why don’t we do it?

Farallon Islands researchers are alarmed after recording one of the worst breeding seasons this year in the largest seabird breeding colony in the continental United States.