Brian Skerry has been a National Geographic photographer for more than 25 years, focusing on life under the surface of waters around the world. He’s photographed whales, sharks, scallop farms and kelp forests, and through it all, he’s been inspired by what visual storytelling can accomplish.
“Good science and good visual storytelling, and people just sharing what they know, is an important way to move that needle in favor of a healthy future,” Skerry said in a recent interview. “I started diving 47 years ago exploring these waters, and it’s staggering to see just how much it’s changed.”
But Skerry has been alarmed of late by what he’s seen through his camera lens: nothing.
“It’s very hard to tell a story about loss by going out and photographing nothing,” Skerry said, referring to some dramatically different marine habitats. “Going out to some of these places that I describe, they don’t look anything like they used to.”
One way that Skerry is bringing the ocean – and specifically, the Gulf of Maine – to people around the world is through a new three-part PBS series Sea Change, for which he is the co-producer and a photographer. Sea Change examines the history and condition of this 7500-mile-long stretch of water.
One of the Gulf’s historical features is that it is fed by cold water from the Arctic, the warm Gulf stream from the South, and inland rivers that flowed out in the ocean, creating a near-perfect oceanic mix.
“It was formed after the last ice age, after the Laurentian ice sheets retreated,” Skerry said. “It left this perfect recipe of ingredients to create the proliferation of life.”
This life includes not only the lobster and seafood that the East Coast is now famous for, but 3,000 other marine species, not to mention marshes, estuaries and kelp forests. But the other famous fish, cod, from this region, was fished almost to extinction.
“As we’ve overfished this body of water, I think we’ve created a lack of resiliency. It is weaker because of that,” said Skerry.
The overfishing of cod has been well-documented, but in more recent times, climate change has become the more immediate threat to the Gulf. The temperature of the Gulf of Maine water has been heating up faster than 99% of the world’s oceans, a result of glacier melt. This data is expounded on in a recent article Skerry wrote for National Geographic.
“It’s like making a perfect cake. If you change the recipe a little bit, or don’t mix it just right, it changes dramatically,” Skerry said.
Sea Change is a way to visually localize climate change.
“I wanted the audience to understand that climate change is not something that’s far away,” Skerry said. “It’s not happening just in the poles. It’s happening in your own backyard.”
One example covered in the series concerns Eastport, a place where he used to go on dives when he was younger. “You would see big schools of juvenile fish, pollock, codfish on the shipwrecks in Cape Cod Bay,” he said. “We would see invertebrates, sea anemones. There was just that abundance.”
And his experience when he returned to photograph for the documentary?
“I went into that same place, and it was just mud and bad visibility, and hardly any of those animals that I used to see,” Skerry said. “It was very dispiriting. You come out of the water at night or during the day, and you just kind of shake your head at how quickly this all changed.”
Another example of the change in the gulf is the explosion of the green crab population. Green crabs, an invasive and destructive species that feeds on seagrasses, thrive in the milder water. But the documentary puts a more positive spin on the species by showing some of the people who are adapting to climate change.
Mike Masi is a fourth-generation lobsterman who has made the shift to green crab fishing. Once the molting pattern of the green crabs was discovered, they could be fished and sold as soft-shell crabs. These soft-shell green crabs are now turning up on menus in the region.
Sea Change also explores the indigenous population of the region and how clam farming is being affected by climate change.
“Gaining the wisdom from those types of voices and the scientists and other people who have a deep connection to this region helps us understand the natural history,” Skerry said.
Skerry and the crew also took some cameras out to Cashes Ledge, which is 80 miles off the coast of Maine and is known for its healthy kelp forest. The forest there has maintained its health mainly because it’s far enough off the coast.
“The scientists said it was as good as it was in the late 1980s,” Skerry said. “But there were troubling signs. There were these invasive red algae that we were seeing in the coastal forest that helps accelerate the decline of these kelp forests. So, this is a place that remains largely unprotected, and is a place that really cries out for protection.”
And as deep-sea mining begins to become more accepted, it’s places like the Cashes Ledge, and perhaps the 36,000 square miles of the Gulf of Maine at large, that need to be protected against not only climate change dangers, but the forthcoming devastation that will inevitably come from the mineral extraction of ocean floors.
“We’re living at this pivotal moment in history where maybe for the first time, humans understand both the problems and the solutions, and we just need that collective will to move toward the solutions,” Skerry said.
“At the end of the day, I think there is great hope. You know, I think what was exciting and encouraging for me were these people’s stories that, with every one of these characters, you see a resilience, you see a recognition of what’s happening, but also a desire to try to solve the problem.”
The post Gulf of Maine in Peril: PBS Documentary Explores the Ocean’s Threats and Resilience appeared first on EcoWatch.
https://www.ecowatch.com/brian-skerry-sea-change-documentary-maine-ecowatch.html
In a new study, scientists have detected high levels of mercury contamination in alligators from the Okefenokee Swamp in southeastern Georgia. The contamination in the alligators could be an indicator of more widespread heavy metal contamination in the region, which could be harmful to other wildlife, and ultimately humans.
“Alligators are very ancient creatures, and we can look at them in these areas as an indicator of what else might be happening in the ecosystem,” Kristen Zemaitis, lead author of the study and a graduate of the Odum School of Ecology at University of Georgia, said in a statement. “Studying them can relate to many different things in the food web.”
Scientists analyzed blood samples and dietary habits of 133 alligators from three different sites: Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia; Jekyll Island, Georgia; and Yawkey Wildlife Center, South Carolina. While the team found mercury in alligators from all three sites, the amount of mercury in alligators from the Okefenokee Swamp was up to eight times higher compared to the alligators along the coast. They published their findings in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Older alligators also had higher levels of mercury, which the researchers explained could be both because of the longer time the mercury could spend accumulating as well as an increase in the volume of prey — which are likely also contaminated with mercury — that the alligators eat as they grow.
But even young alligators were found to contain mercury, as “Mothers are passing toxins and heavy metals into the egg yolks during reproduction,” Zemaitis said.
A new study found that smaller alligators and hatchlings could inherit high levels of mercury from their mothers. Chamberlain Smith / University of Georgia
Because Okefenokee Swamp shares water with the Suwannee and St. Marys rivers, the researchers warned that mercury levels found in alligators, at the top of the food chain, likely means local fish also contain mercury.
“Mercury is a neurotoxin that is very lethal to organisms,” Jeb Byers, co-author of the study and a professor at the Odum School, said in a statement. “If it builds up, it moves through the food web and creates the perfect storm. That’s what we have in the Okefenokee.”
That could also pose a threat for people who hunt or fish in this area, especially if they are consuming their catches.
“Mercury contamination can be a high concern for the people who can be consuming a lot of fish or game species from the rivers, swamps or oceans that have high mercury,” Zemaitis explained. “In any given ecosystem, there are some organisms that can tolerate only very little amounts of mercury, which can result in neurological issues, reproductive issues and eventually death.”
Following this study, Zemaitis hopes to do a deeper investigation into the source of this mercury pollution, how it spreads throughout ecosystems and how it is affecting other wildlife.
“Now that we know this about one of the apex predators in these systems, we wonder what else is being affected?” she said.
The post High Levels of Mercury Found in Alligators in Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia appeared first on EcoWatch.
https://www.ecowatch.com/alligators-mercury-okefenokee-swamp.html
Green Living
Trump Plans to ‘Wean off of FEMA’ After Hurricane Season, Saying States Can ‘Handle It’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he is planning to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “as it exists today” after the 2025 hurricane season.
Trump said he wants to make disaster response and recovery the responsibility of states rather than the federal government.
“We want to wean off of FEMA, and we want to bring it down to the state level,” Trump said, as CNN reported. “A governor should be able to handle it, and frankly, if they can’t handle it, the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn’t be governor.”
Trump added that less federal aid would be provided for disaster recovery, with the funding to be distributed directly by the Oval Office.
“We’re going to give out less money… It’s going to be from the president’s office,” Trump said, as reported by The Hill. “As an example, I just gave out $71 million to a certain state. They were looking to do about $120 [million] — they were very happy with the $71 million.”
For months, Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly criticized FEMA, calling the agency unnecessary and ineffective and vowing to phase it out.
WATCH: “We want to see FEMA eliminated.”
Trump & Noem say they want to end FEMA and give storm-torn states LESS money — while Trump takes personal credit for it. (Likely helping Red states more readily)
As they take credit for the job FEMA is currently doing.
— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) June 10, 2025 at 1:34 PM
“You’ve been very clear that you want to see FEMA eliminated as it exists today, so I’m preparing all of these governors [so] that they will have more control over the decisions on how they respond to their communities so that it can happen faster,” Noem told Trump on Tuesday, as The Hill reported.
Noem and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are co-chairs of a newly established FEMA Review Council, which is expected to give recommendations on how to dramatically reduce the role of the agency and reform its mission and operations, reported CNN.
Noem said the administration was “building communication and mutual aid agreements among states to respond to each other so that they can stand on their own two feet with the federal government coming in in catastrophic circumstances with funding,” as The Hill reported.
Plans to shutter FEMA have confused state and federal emergency managers, who do not believe localized efforts would be able to replace the agency’s strong infrastructure. They said the budgets and personnel of most states would not be enough to tackle the most catastrophic disasters alone, even with a federal financial safety net.
“This is a complete misunderstanding of the role of the federal government in emergency management and disaster response and recovery, and it’s an abdication of that role when a state is overwhelmed,” a FEMA leader told CNN. “It is clear from the president’s remarks that their plan is to limp through hurricane season and then dismantle the agency.”
NOAA predicts this year’s hurricane season will be “above-normal” with as many as 19 named storms.
Following months of upheaval and layoffs, the 2025 hurricane started on June 1 with FEMA short-staffed and underprepared.
The agency has lost 10 percent or more of its staff since January, including much of its senior leadership. It is projected that FEMA will lose nearly 30 percent of its workforce before the end of this year, shrinking it from roughly 26,000 to about 18,000.
Noem recently reopened some FEMA training centers and continued contract extensions for employees who are deployed during disasters in a last-minute effort to shore up hurricane preparedness.
The Trump administration has discussed ending the practice of FEMA staff going door-to-door to assist people in applying for disaster aid, reported The Washington Post. It has also talked about the possibility of raising the damage threshold for communities to qualify for federal assistance.
“It has not worked out well,” Trump said on Tuesday of FEMA’s historic disaster response. “It’s extremely expensive. When you have a tornado or a hurricane or you have a problem of any kind in a state, that’s what you have governors for. They’re supposed to fix those problems.”
The post Trump Plans to ‘Wean off of FEMA’ After Hurricane Season, Saying States Can ‘Handle It’ appeared first on EcoWatch.
https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-fema-2025-hurricane-season.html
According to a recent analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. produced a record amount of energy last year, totaling 103 quadrillion British thermal units (BTUs).
The amount of energy produced in 2024 surpassed the previous record set in 2023 by 1%. However, while U.S. energy production is up, including for solar and wind sources, several other types of renewable energy sources stalled or even declined in 2024.
According to the analysis, natural gas accounted for most of the energy production in the U.S. in 2024, making up 38% of the energy mix. Natural gas has been the country’s largest source of produced energy since 2011, EIA reported.
This was followed by crude oil, which made up 27% of the domestically produced energy mix in the U.S. last year.
Coal reached its lowest output for a year since 1964, totaling 512 million short tons and making up 10% of total energy production in the U.S.
On the renewables front, solar, wind and biofuel energies each separately set records in 2024. Solar capacity increased 25%, while wind capacity increased 8%. Biofuels reached 1.4 million barrels per day of production, an increase of 6% compared to the previous records set for biofuels in 2023.
Other renewable energy sources did not beat records, though. As EIA reported, “Output from other energy sources that are primarily used for electric power generation either peaked decades ago (hydropower and nuclear) or fell slightly from their 2023 values (geothermal).”
Earlier in 2025, EIA predicted that solar and wind capacity would continue to grow this year, with utility-scale solar capacity expected to add 32.5 gigawatts, utility-scale wind capacity to add 7.7 gigawatts and battery storage to add 18.2 gigawatts.
However, the U.S. could face challenges to expanding renewables and reducing reliance on fossil fuels as the current administration has planned to suspend permits and leases for wind energy projects and has proposed opening up National Petroleum Reserve lands in Alaska for fossil fuel extraction.
Meanwhile, renewable energy is in high demand globally. Earlier this year, China invested more money into renewable energy sources over coal from overseas for the first time, and the country has set a record for new solar and wind installations in 2023 and again in 2024. In the EU, electricity generation from solar power surpassed electricity from coal power in 2024 for the first time.
Experts have predicted that renewables will continue to grow in the U.S. and abroad, but poor policies could cause the U.S. to fall behind in the global clean energy transition, leading to $50 billion of lost exports.
The post U.S. Produced Record Amount of Energy in 2024, EIA Reports appeared first on EcoWatch.
https://www.ecowatch.com/us-energy-production-record-2024.html
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