"President Obama [Tuesday] ordered five federal agencies to streamline regulations for offsetting environmental harm and to promote independent mitigation efforts."

"A large ship found in deep water off the Bahamas is the lost freighter El Faro that sank with 33 crew members in a hurricane last month, U.S. authorities said on Monday."

"There's far more riding on the Americas' largest seawater desalination plant than the 50 million gallons of drinking water it will produce for the San Diego area each day."

"One of the last wild runs of chinook salmon in California is sinking fast amid the four-year drought and now appears perilously close to oblivion after the federal agency in charge of protecting marine life documented the death of millions of young fish and eggs in the Sacramento River."

"NEW ORLEANS - Gulf coral damage from the massive BP oil spill is more extensive than previously thought, according to a new study that revealed sick and dying corals in the rich, deep-water environment off the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi known as the Pinnacles."

"The rapid warming of the waters off New England has contributed to the historic collapse of the region’s cod population and has hampered its ability to rebound, according to a study that for the first time links climate change to the iconic species’ plummeting numbers."

"The island nation of Kiribati is one of the world's most vulnerable to rising sea levels. But residents may have to leave well before the ocean claims their homes."

"Tar sands mining companies have continued to withdraw water from the Athabasca River in northeastern Alberta despite low flows that have made navigation difficult for river users downstream and left Fort Chipewyan's harbor dry."

Melting glaciers in Glacier National Park are endangering stoneflies which are dependent on cold water. In the coming year, federal biologists will decide whether such insects deserve endangered species status.

Scientists have observed a thinning of East Antarctica's Totten Glacier, which they now believe is because it is being undermined by sea water. This could cause significant sea level rise.