Coastal & Marine Conservation

For the tourist city of Acapulco, the statistics about Tropical Storm Manuel are staggering, especially given its seemingly unassuming status as a storm and not a cyclone. 60,000 stranded tourists. 23,000 homes without electricity and water. At least 11 deaths. 15 to 25 inches of rain. The only two roads connecting Acapulco to México City ruined by landslides. The international airport flooded. The rains began on Saturday, 14 September 2013, and continued nonstop through Monday, México’s Independence Day.

With its ocean views, walking path, and ice plant-covered cliffs, many in Santa Cruz consider West Cliff Drive to be a jewel of the community. Now a couple of scientists want the community to help them restore native habitat to the coastal bluffs. They’ve started the non-profit West Cliff Ecosystem Restoration project to help organize the restoration. Last winter, volunteers with the group ripped out ice plant in a small bed near the entrance to Natural Bridges State Park.

All it takes is a license and a cutting rake to harvest rockweed anytime and anywhere along most of Maine's long coast. Other than in a large bay in far eastern Maine, there's no fisheries management plan for the common seaweed that grows along the shore. But work is now underway to develop a statewide plan to manage rockweed, which is processed in Maine into fertilizer, animal feed supplements, food and other products with an estimated value of $20 million a year.

Southern California beaches with storm drain diversion systems attract millions more people annually, a new study in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin shows. The study looked at whether improving the environmental quality of coastal areas through policy intervention had an effect on the way people use coastal areas. Researchers found a direct correlation between increased attendance and the installation of storm drain diversions at 26 beaches in Santa Monica Bay and Malibu.