Cleanup of California Oil Spill Goes Low-Tech to Limit Environmental Impact
Because the Refugio state beach region is home to threatened shorebirds and cultural resources, a decision was made early on to clean oil-stained beaches the old-fashioned way by using hand tools instead of heavy equipment or chemicals.
Erosion Threatens Iconic NASA Launch Pads
The ocean ticks a countdown of its own, along this thin strip of beach where rockets blasted to space from NASA’s two iconic launch pads. Waves lap ever closer to the concrete pads at Kennedy Space Center, as the moon that man reached from these sands drives tides that threaten the pads’ foundations.
Sand Being Hauled Aways from the Cagayan Beaches in the Philippines, Shipped off to China
At least 2.5 million metric tons of the country’s magnetite were shipped to China from almost five years of controversy-ridden blacksand mining operations in the province of Cagayan, government records showed.
A Little Fish with Big Impact In Trouble on U.S. West Coast
Scientists are concerned that officials waited too long to order a ban on U.S. Pacific sardine fishing that goes into effect July 1. The dire state of the sardine population is a cautionary tale about overharvesting these and other forage fish that are a critical part of the marine food web.