Latest Coastal News Filter
Transforming Waste Fishing Gear into Profitable Resources
By Paul Molyneaux. Discarded fishing gear is a major contributor to ocean pollution. According to Ben Kneppers, who along with David Stover and Kevin Ahearn, co-founded the fishing net recycling company, Bureo, around 600,000 tons of fishing gear ends up in the ocean every year and continues to kill marine life.… SEE MORE
Virginia Lawmakers Move to Protect Commercial Fishermen from Harassment at Sea
By Larry Chowning. The Virginia General Assembly has passed HB 928, a bill designed to protect commercial fishermen and their boats from harassment at sea. The measure passed 38-1 by the state Senate and 99-0 in the lower House, and was signed on by legislative leaders in early March. Gov.… SEE MORE
High Tide Flooding Predictions for May 2024
By US Harbors. Coastal Flooding Outlook for May 2024 Per NOAA, mean sea level is typically higher in the late spring due to changing weather patterns and increasing water temperatures. That said, the outlook for tidal flooding this May is pretty contained, and is certainly less than we saw a… Learn More
Why Is the Sea So Hot?
By Elizabeth Kolbert. In early 2023, climate scientists—and anyone else paying attention to the data—started to notice something strange. At the beginning of March, sea-surface temperatures began to rise. By April, they’d set a new record: the average temperature at the surface of the world’s oceans, excluding those at the… SEE MORE
Whales and Carbon Sequestration: Can Whales Store Carbon?
By fisheries.noaa.gov. The ocean captures about 31 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions, removing carbon from the atmosphere that would otherwise continue to trap heat and increase temperatures. Blue carbon, or carbon captured by ocean ecosystems includes: Carbon absorbed by aquatic plants, algae, and phytoplankton Carbon stored in the bodies of living animals… SEE MORE
Meet the Divers Trying to Figure Out How Deep Humans Can Go
By Samantha Schuyler. Two hundred thirty meters into one of the deepest underwater caves on Earth, Richard “Harry” Harris knew that not far ahead of him was a 15-meter drop leading to a place no human being had seen before. Getting there had taken two helicopters, three weeks of test… SEE MORE
Scientists Discover The Anatomy Behind The Songs of Baleen Whales
By Will Dunham. WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) – It is one of Earth’s most haunting sounds – the “singing” of baleen whales like the humpback, heard over vast distances in the watery realm. Now scientists have finally figured out how these filter-feeding marine mammals do it. Baleen whales – a group that includes the… SEE MORE
Best Practices to Release Reef Fish
By Sam Hudson Prized bottomfish such as red snapper, gag grouper and other demersal species are experiencing overfishing. That’s according to state and federal fisheries managers in charge of overseeing fish populations. What that means for recreational anglers in the last decade is often shorter seasons, plus the likelihood of early seasonal closures. As you… SEE MORE
From urchin crushing to lab-grown kelp, efforts to save California’s kelp forests show promise
By apnews.com. CASPAR BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A welding hammer strapped to her wrist, Joy Hollenback slipped on blue fins and swam into the churning, chilly Pacific surf one fall morning to do her part to save Northern California’s vanishing kelp forests. Hollenback floated on the swaying surface to regulate… SEE MORE