This week in our nation’s capital, ocean leaders, advocates and businesses, along with ocean champions in Congress, are taking a closer look at the future of our oceans, as part of Capitol Hill Oceans Week. Thanks to a report released today by the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, identifying some of our...

As kids start to trade in their backpacks for beach towels, they’re not the only ones with their eyes toward the ocean. In a backdoor attack on our ocean health, some Republicans in Congress are trying to attach amendments that would put our oceans, beaches and economy at risk onto...

Smart ocean planning can bring our economy billions of dollars of benefits according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study examined where to best locate new offshore wind farms in coastal waters around Massachusetts, confirming that smart-planning will help us determine the...

Some of the most mysterious and enthralling places on Earth may be next in line for oil and gas drilling.

Today the Obama administration released its draft Environmental Impact Statement on its proposed plan to allow areas offshore the Mid and South Atlantic to be surveyed for their energy development potential....

This week the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs held a hearing entitled “Empty Hooks: The National Ocean Policy is the Latest Threat to Access for Recreational and Commercial Fishermen.” Unfortunately, the title of this hearing is highly misleading. The National Ocean Policy will...

When President Obama released his budget proposal to Congress this week, his message to Congress was clear: “[Create] an economy that is built to last.” Unfortunately for our coasts and oceans -- and the millions of Americans who depend on these resources to make their living -- the administration’s proposed...

The year 2012 promises hope for the future of America’s oceans. Changes are expected that will help the creatures that live below the surface, the people who live and vacation along our coasts, and the clean energy developers who want to tap into the vast wind potential that lies off...

Should we protect and restore our oceans so that we can swim, fish, enjoy and use our oceans and coasts now and for generations to come? Or should we let our beaches and oceans become more polluted, our ocean wildlife depleted and industrial uses of the ocean occur in a...

Reality TV has been trendy for a decade now. American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor, The Amazing Race.  But tonight, there’s a new type of reality program on that’s a must-watch.

The Climate Reality Project kicks off, online, at 7 pm Central, live from Boulder, Colorado. From...

It’s been bad news down on Wall Street. But at the other end of New York City, off of the Bronx’s City Island, there was a heartening report: dolphins were spotted and escorted through the western end of the Long Island Sound by the NYPD Harbor Unit, ensuring a...

Before journalist Juliet Eilperin, the national environmental reporter for the Washington Post, first swam in the Caribbean with a large school of good-sized sharks, she jotted down a list of why she would survive:

1. All the biologists on this trip have an interest in keeping me alive, since...

There’s a lot of excitement in New York over recent news that whales, seals, and dolphins have returned to our waters. They’re showing up in such vast numbers that one ferry boat captain now offers weekend tours so folks can catch a glimpse of humpback, blue, fin, and right whales...

Last month I introduced an NRDC report on the Florida Keys response to the Gulf oil disaster, which compiles a series of interviews with a number of local leaders. Now, I’d like to share their individual stories and the lessons they learned from last summer, beginning with Captain...

The cerulean waters of the Florida Keys are a long way from Gulf of Mexico’s northern end, yet oil from last summer’s tragic Deepwater Horizon spill might have reached them, if not for a serendipitous event -  an ocean eddy...

Tomorrow evening at the Commonwealth Club of California, the Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Jane Lubchenco will be discussing the Obama administration's national ocean policy.

Just as we have the...

Despite the attention-grabbing headlines today pronouncing the oil is gone, a hard look at the government’s new report reveals the oil still very much exists. While it's good news that there's much less oil on the surface waters of the Gulf, that's not the only place where the oil still...

According to press reports, today will go down in environmental history for landmark progress toward ocean protection. In my 36 years of environmental policy work, there are few moments in my book that rise to today’s level of importance.

In mid-June, I joined Laird Hamilton and Gabrielle Reece as they visited the Gulf oil disaster.  Following is a short video that contains moving testimony about what they saw.

As the fight to stop the growing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico continues, concern remains that oil from the Gulf disaster could enter the powerful Loop Current and circulate water around Florida and up the Atlantic Coast via the...

BP recently announced it will provide $500 million to scientists for research into the Deepwater Horizon disaster's impact on the Gulf of Mexico. While I believe BP should contribute to the cost of studying the spill, the company is already starting...