"Carnival Corp. reached a settlement Monday with federal prosecutors in which the world’s largest cruise line agreed to pay a $20 million penalty because its ships continued to pollute the oceans despite a previous criminal conviction aimed at curbing similar conduct."

"The Food and Drug Administration’s first broad testing of food for a worrisome class of nonstick, stain-resistant industrial compounds found substantial levels in some grocery store meats and seafood and in off-the-shelf chocolate cake, according to unreleased findings FDA researchers presented at a scientific conference in Europe."

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday it is launching an investigation into the high number of gray whale deaths reported on the West Coast this year to determine whether environmental, human or disease-related causes are to blame."

"Out-of-sight septic systems — more than 100,000 of them in Volusia County and an estimated 2.7 million in Florida — add to growing concerns about the rising tide of nitrogen and other pollution feeding algae blooms and killing fish and sea grasses."

"Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Wednesday she will move in June to shut a Great Lakes oil pipeline if the governor cannot reach a resolution with operator Enbridge, saying the state is in “great peril” the longer the oil continues to flow under a sensitive waterway."

"The story of the seabirds’ deaths likely starts at the bottom of the food chain, where warming water and climate change are changing the menu."

"Fishermen like Jose da Cruz have made their living for decades hunting for crabs among Brazil’s vast coastal mangrove forests, dense thickets of twisted plants in deep black mud that grow where fresh-water rivers meet the brackish Atlantic Ocean."

"New Hampshire has sued eight companies including 3M and the DuPont Co. for damage it says has been caused by a class of potentially toxic chemicals found in pizza boxes, fast-food wrappers and drinking water."

"A nonprofit that tracks pollution in the Chesapeake Bay lambasted Pennsylvania on Tuesday, saying that the state is failing to protect the nation’s largest estuary from farm manure and dirty stormwater."