Category: Coastal News

Artificial Intelligence Could Soon Turn Anyone into an Expert Tracker

8/18/2024 - By Ryan Truscott. Scientists are working on a machine learning tool that could, one day, identify individual animals from photographs of their footprints. Some wild animals are relatively easy to study. Certain penguin populations, for instance, are so unaccustomed to large predators that they barely fear humans and will often wander right… SEE MORE

California sea lion stricken by the neurotoxin domoic acid from a harmful algal bloom in Santa Barbara County, California. Photo: Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute

Toxic Algal Bloom Affecting California Sea Lions and Dolphins

8/17/2024 - By fisheries.noaa.gov. Upwelling of nutrient-laden ocean water is fueling the algal bloom which produces domoic acid, which can poison marine mammals. Strong upwelling of nutrient-laden water from the deep ocean is driving a bloom of harmful algae along the Southern California coast. It produces a toxin that can poison sea… SEE MORE

Lobster gauge increase delayed a second time

8/15/2024 - By Carli Stewart. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) just voted to delay the planned gauge change to increase the minimum allowable catch size in Lobster Management Area 1 until July 1, 2025. The Commission also approved Addendum 30, which clarifies that lobsters imported from Canada under the U.S.… SEE MORE

Black abalone are an endangered marine snail that face climate change threats such as increased water temperatures, sedimentation, and ocean acidification. Credit: NOAA Fisheries.

Climate Change Threatens the Survival and Recovery of Black Abalone

8/14/2024 - By fisheries.noaa.gov. Black abalone are sensitive to climate change impacts, such as increasing water temperatures and increasing sedimentation events from intense fire and storm activity. These challenges make them more vulnerable to lethal disease and burial. Black abalone, which are plant-eating marine snails, once thrived along the California and Baja… SEE MORE

Birthing the Blob

8/13/2024 - By Michael Allen. With ecosystems increasingly squeezed by anthropogenic warming, even cleaning up pollution can cause problems. In 2013, a huge marine heatwave known as the Blob hit the northeast Pacific Ocean. Temperatures soared to dangerous new highs, killing millions of marine animals and disrupting the broader ocean ecosystem in… SEE MORE

Rare sea creature washes ashore in Southern California

8/12/2024 - By apnews.com. A 7-foot (215-centimeter) sea creature that washed ashore in Southern California has been identified as a hoodwinker sunfish, a recently identified rare species thought to live in the Southern Hemisphere. The University of California, Santa Barbara, said an intern spotted the stranded fish last week at Sands Beach… SEE MORE

he first Your Shores cohort learning to scuba dive. Credit: Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science

NOAA-Funded Program Helps Miami Teens from Under-Resourced Schools Enter Marine Science Field

8/11/2024 - By fisheries.noaa.gov. The Your Shores program at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science provides high school students from diverse backgrounds with dive certifications, habitat restoration and research experience, and marine science training. To address the inequity of opportunities for students of all backgrounds in the marine science field and… SEE MORE

Melting of Alaska’s Juneau icefield accelerates, losing snow nearly 5 times faster than in the 1980s

8/10/2024 - By Seth Borenstein. The melting of Alaska’s Juneau icefield, home to more than 1,000 glaciers, is accelerating. The snow covered area is now shrinking 4.6 times faster than it was in the 1980s, according to a new study. Researchers meticulously tracked snow levels in the nearly 1,500-square mile icy expanse going back… SEE MORE

The Mysterious Discovery of ‘Dark Oxygen’ on the Ocean Floor

8/9/2024 - By Mara Magistroni. Researchers believe they have discovered oxygen being produced 4,000 meters below the sea surface, and think polymetallic nodules—the sought-after bounty of deep-sea miners—could be the source. For more than 10 years, Andrew Sweetman and his colleagues have been studying the ocean floor and its ecosystems, particularly in… SEE MORE

Northeast Summer Striper Tactics

8/8/2024 - By David A. Brown. Summer striper fishing is an adrenaline rush. Get out there with live baits and topwaters in low-light conditions. Like any sport, you can spend as much as you want gearing up for your next saltwater battle. However, northeast striper ace Blaine Anderson said the summer months… SEE MORE