Congress

 

Winners And Losers In The 'CHIPS And Science' Bill. According to E&E News, “Winners … Fighting ocean acidification Research into the impact of rising carbon dioxide levels in the ocean and its impact on marine ecosystems got a big boost. The legislation would reauthorize NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program by backing $121 million in research funding over the next five years. It would also provide the National Science Foundation $20 million for similar work over the same five years. Beyond research dollars, the bill would direct NOAA to create a new data system for storing oceanic acidification data, expand a federal interagency working group on oceanic acidification to include an outside advisory board and direct more focus on coastal acidification and mitigation strategies.” [E&E News, 8/3/22 (=)]

 

Winners And Losers In The 'CHIPS And Science' Bill. According to E&E News, “Losers … Wildlife tracking, deep-sea mining A push by Democrats to use the CHIPS bills to crack down on illegal wildlife tracking also fell short. The final bill removed sections related to the international trafficking of wildlife, including an authorization of $150 million for Fish and Wildlife Service enforcement. The package has a domestic ban of shark fin sales and a three-year ban on importation of potential invasive species. Backers had argued the provisions would target China, which is a leader in illicit wildlife tracking. But GOP arguments that the provision was tangential to the bill won out as it moved to the Senate. Also rejected was a House-favored provision that would have required NOAA to study the impacts of deep-sea mining. Environmental groups have argued deep-sea mining could destroy seabeds and lead to unintended catastrophes in oceans.” [E&E News, 8/3/22 (=)]

 

Agencies

 

NOAA

 

High-Tide Flooding In U.S. Cities Likely To Worsen, NOAA Predicts. According to E&E News, “The number of days when ocean water creeps onto city streets in coastal areas is likely to increase without more flood defenses, says a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report released today. The NOAA report predicts that the number of high-tide floods, which occur when the tide reaches 1.75 to 2 feet above the daily average high tide, will reach a nationwide average of three to seven days by April 2023. By 2050, that average may be 45 to 70 days in a year. High-tide flooding, also known as ‘sunny day’ or ‘nuisance’ flooding, used to happen only during large storms. But this kind of inundation of streets and neighborhoods is becoming more frequent as land sinks, natural barriers are destroyed and sea levels rise, in part due to climate change. Between May 2021 and April 2022, three NOAA locations broke or tied their high-tide flooding records: Reedy Point in Delaware, Kwajalein Island in the Marshall Islands and Springmaid Pier in South Carolina. Communities along the East and Gulf coasts are predicted to see a 150 percent increase in the number of high-tide flood days over the next year compared with the baseline year of 2000.” [E&E News, 8/2/22 (=)]

 

Coastal Flooding In The U.S. On The Rise As Sea Levels Climb, Scientists Say. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Flooding along U.S. coasts has become more frequent in recent years and is likely to worsen, government scientists said in a new report. Unusually high tides driven by rising seas sloshed water onto coastal areas more than 500 times over the past year, according to the report. The Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts will experience this so-called high-tide or sunny-day flooding an average of three to seven days between May 2022 and April 2023, according to projections in the annual report, which was released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That is the same as during the preceding year but up from an average of two to six days of flooding between May 2019 and April 2020. Along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, high-tide coastal flooding now occurs twice as frequently as it did in 2000, according to the report. Although not as destructive as flooding associated with storms, sunny-day flooding can pose a nuisance to motorists, pedestrians and landowners as seawater surges over sea walls and bubbles up from storm drains before retreating hours later. Coastal floods can also force affected communities to find ways to ease the inconvenience and mitigate the damage—in much the same way that some northern communities develop detailed ways to cope with heavy snowfall. … High-tide flooding results when seawater surges at least 1.75 feet above normal high-tide levels. It is caused not by the storms and heavy rain that typically cause inland flooding but by rising seas, the scientists said in the report. Sea levels are rising as the world’s oceans warm and their volumes expand and as polar ice sheets melt, according to a 2019 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.” [The Wall Street Journal, 8/2/22 (=)]

 

High Tide Flooding On The Rise In New England, NOAA Report Finds. According to CBS, “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report on Tuesday, saying that high tide flooding in New England is on the rise. That means we will continue to see flooding not only on stormy days, but also on sunny days. Experts often talk about the rise in so-called ‘sunny day flooding’ or ‘king tide flooding,’ which is flooding when there aren’t any storms around. The reason that is increasing is the rise of the sea level. As water levels continue to go up, we are steadily seeing more frequent flooding at the coast. Nationally, the northeast is seeing some of the highest impact from this change. Since 2000, there has been a 200% increase in high tide flooding days. That means 11-18 days per year. By 2050, it is estimated we will experience high tide flooding 50-70 days per year.” [CBS, 8/2/22 (=)]

 

US High Tide Flooding Breaks Records In Multiple Locations. According to The Hill, “High-tide flooding (HTF) broke or tied records in three locations in U.S. coastal areas in the past year, according to data released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). HTF has become increasingly frequent across the country but will likely decline this year, according to NOAA. The administration attributed the decrease to the La Niña weather phenomenon. HTF increases are likely to be concentrated along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, where NOAA is predicting a 150 percent increase from the year 2000. Since May of this year, three different NOAA-monitored locations have tied or broken previous records for number of HTF days. Reedy Point, Del., saw a new high of six events, while Kwajalein Island in the Pacific broke its 2021 record with four days of HTF. Meanwhile, South Carolina’s Springmaid Pier saw 11 HTF events, tying its 2021 high. HTF occurs when ocean water floods into low-lying areas during high-tide periods, usually following tides of between 1.75 and 2 feet above the daily average. In years past, these events have been limited to storms, but they have recently become common during prevailing-wind changes or even full moons.” [The Hill, 8/2/22 (=)]

 

Here Comes The Floods. According to Politico, “Sea-level rise from climate change is elevating high-tide flooding risk on the U.S. coasts, NOAA warned in an annual report released Tuesday. Those events, also known as ‘king tide,’ ‘sunny day’ and ‘nuisance’ flooding, occur when tides rise 1.75 to 2 feet above average and flow onto streets. Three locations experienced a record number of high-tide days, though a La Nina event likely subdued national high-tide frequency for the observed and projected May 2022 through April 2023 period, with an anticipated three to seven days of such flooding. But rising seas will push that to a range of 45 to 70 days by 2050, NOAA said. ‘Coastal flood warnings for significant risks to life and property, will become much more commonplace as we approach mid-century,’ the agency wrote.” [Politico, 8/3/22 (=)]

 

Fisheries & Marine Life

 

Hotter Summers Mean Florida's Turtles Are Mostly Born Female. According to Reuters, “Florida’s sea turtles are grappling with a gender imbalance made worse by climate change. Recent heat waves have caused the sand on some beaches to get so hot that nearly every turtle born was female. ‘The frightening thing is the last four summers in Florida have been the hottest summers on record,’ said Bette Zirkelbach, manager of the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, a city in the Florida Keys, a string of tropical islands stretching from the southern end of the state. ‘Scientists that are studying sea turtle hatchlings and eggs have found no boy sea turtles, so only female sea turtles for the past four years,’ Zirkelbach said, whose turtle center has operated since 1986. When a female turtle digs a nest on a beach, the temperature of the sand determines the gender of the hatchlings. Zirkelbach said an Australian study showed similar statistics - ‘99% of new sea turtle babies are female.’ Instead of determining sex during fertilization, the sex of sea turtles and alligators depends on the temperature of developing eggs, according to the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). If a turtle’s eggs incubate below 81.86 Fahrenheit (27.7 Celsius), the turtle hatchlings will be male, whereas if they incubate above 88.8 F (31C), they will be female, according to NOAA’S National Ocean Service website.” [Reuters, 8/2/22 (=)]

 

World’s Toughest Turtle? Survivor Among 8 Returned To Ocean. According to Associated Press, “If what doesn’t kill you truly makes you stronger, then Titan is the strongest turtle in the ocean. The juvenile Loggerhead turtle has been gashed by a boat propeller, had part of his front flipper bitten off by a shark, and was being attacked by a different shark when two New Jersey fishermen intervened, saved him and called Sea Turtle Recovery, a group that rescues and rehabilitates turtles before returning them to the ocean. Tuesday morning, Titan was among eight turtles returned to the sea after being nursed back to health over the winter and spring. ‘To see Titan go back into the ocean after being hit by a boat, bitten by a shark and fighting off another shark is just amazing,’ said Brandi Biehl, co-executive officer of the group. ‘There truly is no tougher turtle in the world than him.’ Based in the aptly named Turtle Back Zoo in South Orange, New Jersey, the group began taking in and treating sick or injured turtles in Dec. 2016. Including Tuesday’s releases, they have now healed and returned 85 turtles to the ocean.” [Associated Press, 8/3/22 (=)]

 

Feds Target US Companies Caught In Lucrative Shark Fin Trade. According to Associated Press, “It’s one of the seafood industry’s most gruesome hunts. Every year, the fins of as many as 73 million sharks are sliced from the backs of the majestic sea predators, their bleeding bodies sometimes dumped back into the ocean where they are left to suffocate or die of blood loss. But while the barbaric practice is driven by China, where shark fin soup is a symbol of status for the rich and powerful, America’s seafood industry isn’t immune from the trade. A spate of recent criminal indictments highlights how U.S. companies, taking advantage of a patchwork of federal and state laws, are supplying a market for fins that activists say is as reprehensible as the now-illegal trade in elephant ivory once was. A complaint quietly filed last month in Miami federal court accused an exporter based in the Florida Keys, Elite Sky International, of falsely labeling some 5,666 pounds of China-bound shark fins as live Florida spiny lobsters. Another company, south Florida-based Aifa Seafood, is also under criminal investigation for similar violations, according to two people on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing probe. The company is managed by a Chinese-American woman who in 2016 pleaded guilty to shipping more than a half-ton of live Florida lobsters to her native China without a license.” [Associated Press, 8/2/22 (=)]

 

 

Responses to this email are not monitored.

 

Please contact Mitch Dunn (mitch@beehivedc.com) with clips related questions and comments  

 

Please contact Kimberly Gerbert (kgerbert@partnershipproject.org) with distribution related questions