Water & Oceans

"There are only about 370 North Atlantic right whales left. Of those, an alarmingly small number are mothers. Squilla is one of them."

"Almost nothing stood in the way of the pounding waves that crashed into seaside homes in Staten Island’s Tottenville neighborhood when Superstorm Sandy struck the city 12 years ago.... But after years of work, a system of artificial reefs largely completed this summer could help soften the blow of future hurricanes."

"Albania prevented Monday a ship suspected of transferring a huge amount of hazardous waste from docking at Tirana’s main port, officials said, after a watchdog group alerted authorities."

"Toxic pesticides dumped off Southern California’s coast decades ago are staying put — deep in adjacent ocean sediments and in the fish that reside in these habitats, a new study has found."

"Wind-strewn dust from California’s lithium-rich, shrinking Salton Sea may be triggering respiratory issues in children who live nearby, a new study has found."

"Damage to oceans is releasing vast amounts of CO2, despite efforts to market fish as a sustainable food."

"Water firms “passed” thousands of pollution tests under a self-monitoring regime … yet the tests were never even conducted, the Observer can reveal. The water firms’ own operational data for sewage plants across the country reveals how outflows of effluent had stopped – in some cases for just a few hours – on days that samples were supposed to be taken."

"Owasco Lake is called the region’s “canary in the coal mine” for harmful algal blooms, which threaten swimmers, pets and some local drinking water supplies."

"The once-mighty river is barely a trickle through much of West Texas. Scientists and advocates say local initiatives could be scaled up to restore flows to the river."

"New York, New Jersey and Delaware were accused in federal lawsuits Thursday of improperly allowing Atlantic sturgeon to be killed by commercial fishing operations even as the prehistoric fish is on the brink of disappearing."