Water & Oceans

"The only resident group of whales in the Gulf of Mexico, a population numbering fewer than 50 animals off the Florida panhandle, has moved one step closer to possible federal protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act."

"When Gov. Jerry Brown issued the first statewide water use reduction order in California history on Wednesday, he put his emphasis squarely on cities and towns."

"Five generations of Philip Vinson's family have labored using tongs to pull oysters from Apalachicola Bay's shallow waters. He fears there won't be a sixth."

"A remedy for a concentrated pool of solvents directly under the manufacturing site where at least 1,500 people still work may take years to find."

"Besieged by rising seas and ever more violent storms, many East Coast communities now slow the erosion of their beaches by reinforcing them with massive amounts of sand."

"North Carolinians should get ready for a sea-level rise over the next three decades that could be as little as 3.5 inches on the southern coast and as much as 10.6 inches in the northern Outer Banks, a state science advisory panel said Tuesday."

"California’s astonishingly low snowpack, a pathetic 5 percent of normal, and the severity of the drought afflicting the state isn’t some fluke.  It’s a likely consequence of climate change, specifically the rising temperatures which are intensifying many of the processes causing the state to lose water at an alarming rate."

"Ohio's governor is set to put in place new rules that should help cut down on the pollutants feeding the algae in Lake Erie."

"The National Marine Fisheries Service violated multiple environmental laws when it authorized the Navy to conduct training activities off Hawaii and Southern California, a federal judge ruled yesterday."