Nurdles are small plastic pellets that are causing a big problem. But citizen scientists are fighting back. In this episode, we talk with Jace Tunnell, Director of the Mission Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, about how the Nurdle Patrol is taking on these problematic pellets, and how you can get involved.

Connect with ocean experts and explore topics from corals to coastal science with our audio podcast." This episode focuses on microplastics

The NOAA Marine Debris Program envisions the global ocean and its coasts free from the impacts of marine debris. The mission of the NOAA Marine Debris Program is to investigate and prevent the adverse impacts of marine debris.

Why teach about estuaries? This suite of estuary education resources help educators bring estuarine science into the classroom through hands-on learning, experiments, fieldwork, and data explorations. These specially designed lessons, activities, data explorations, animations and videos can be used independently or as a supplement to existing curricula and can be adapted to meet any grade level.

Marine debris is a constant and challenging threat to communities all over the world. It can travel on currents across the ocean, reach remote shorelines where very few people live, and cause major problems for both people and wildlife. No matter where you live, it's important for us all to understand the problem. Marine debris is created by people, which means we can also be the solution.

Staten Island recently received funding for a nearly 5-mile-long seawall to protect its coast. But the plan raises a lot of questions. We're living in a dangerously dynamic world: Hurricanes are getting worse, wildfires are rampant in California, extreme heat is melting roads in India, and sea levels continue to rise. Will a wall really be enough to protect our coastal cities?

In recent years plastic pollution in the ocean has become a significant environmental concern for governments, scientists, nongovernmental organizations, and members of the public worldwide. A December 2014 study derived from six years of research by the 5 Gyres Institute estimated that 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing some 269,000 tons are floating on the surface of the sea. At the same time, plastics in consumer products have become subject to increasing scrutiny regarding their potential effects on human health.

Today's Northshore millennials are spreading their wings to find new housing and livelihoods in newly developed parts of St. Tammany Parish. And it's not just homeowners, either: Regional companies are finding the Northshore to their liking as well. These two demographic factors - millennials and new companies - have helped sustain the economic engine of the latest and largest mixed-use developments of retail, residential and office hubs across the parish. To St.

Race bears the strongest relationship to slow and ineffective enforcement of the federal drinking water law in communities across the nation, according to a new report released today. Watered Down Justiceis a new analysis of EPA data that confirms there is unequal access to safe drinking water, based most strongly on race, a scientific conclusion that mirrors the lived experience of people of color and low-income residents in the United States.

This article features interactive materials that allow the reader to investigate how climate change will impact individual counties throughout the United States. "Taken with other recent research showing that the most habitable climate in North America will shift northward and the incidence of large fires will increase across the country, this suggests that the climate crisis will profoundly interrupt the way we live and farm in the United States.