"A group of 19 House Democrats is asking the Minerals Management Service to investigate whether BP PLC has the required engineering documents to safely operate its Atlantis oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico."

"More than a year after President George W. Bush created a vast marine national monument near the Northern Marianas Islands, the federal government has yet to make good on promised investments in the islands."

"Thousands of the nation's largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act's reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators."

"California water resources board plan, backed by environmentalists, would end practice of sucking in ocean water -- along with small animals, fish larvae and, occasionally, people -- to cool plants."

"Scientists have discovered an area of the North Atlantic Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The region is said to compare with the well-documented 'great Pacific garbage patch'."

"A working group of the International Whaling Commission today released a draft proposal that would allow the return of commercial whaling. An IWC moratorium on commercial whaling has been in place since 1986."

"A plague of oxygen-deprived waters from the deep ocean is creeping up over the continental shelves off the Pacific Northwest and forcing marine species there to relocate or die."

"The Obama administration has developed a five-year blueprint for rescuing the Great Lakes, a sprawling ecosystem plagued by toxic contamination, shrinking wildlife habitat and invasive species."

"A century-old fight about water from Oregon's Klamath Basin ended Thursday with signed agreements that assure farmers water and power to keep their crops green, and lay out the removal of dams that have blocked salmon from hundreds of miles of spawning grounds."

"Australia's prime minister on Friday set a November deadline for Japan to stop its research whaling program that kills hundreds of whales a year in Antarctic waters, or else face legal action."

"A new study says the seas are acidifying ten times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred. And, the study concludes, current changes in ocean chemistry due to the burning of fossil fuels may portend a new wave of die-offs."

"A federal judge turned down California farmers' emergency request Wednesday to suspend water pumping restrictions in the state's delta in a ruling aimed at keeping a threatened fish species from being ground up in the pumps."

"An influential environmental group has backed away from a settlement that would remove four dams along the Klamath River to restore salmon and steelhead runs that have been partially blocked for most of the past century on the California-Oregon border."

"The Obama administration is proposing a grant program that could start zoning marine areas for offshore projects."

"Major snowstorms are set to bury the mid-Atlantic states this weekend after record snowfalls in December. Last month California was awash in rain. The Gulf states have seen heavy weather lately as well. Turns out it's not just a run of bad luck. What's behind a lot of this winter's weather is El Nino... ."