Chesapeake Bay

Shells discarded by diners are being collected, cleaned and dumped into waterways around the country and the world, where they form the basis of new oyster colonies

The body of an 8-year-old boy who disappeared Thursday after canoeing with his mother on the Chesapeake Bay has been found, police said.  Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean’s body was found Wednesday afternoon about two miles from where he and his mother, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, set off on Thursday.  The boy’s body was found about 2,000 feet from where...

The search for two members of the Kennedy family — an 8-year-old boy and his mother — who went missing Thursday while canoeing in the Chesapeake Bay was suspended Friday evening due to darkness and high wind. They are presumed dead. Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, and her son Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean went missing Thursday afternoon, Maryland Gov. Larry…

Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg left North America on a return trip across the Atlantic on Wednesday, hitching a renewable-energy ride with an Australian family aboard their 48-foot (15-meter) catamaran.

Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg will leave North America and begin her return trip across the Atlantic on Wednesday aboard a 48-foot (15-meter) catamaran sailboat whose passengers include an 11-month-old baby. The boat leaves little to no carbon footprint, boasting solar panels and a hydro-generators for power. It also has a toilet, unlike the boat on which she sailed...

Climate change activist Greta Thunberg, 16, spoke at the United Nations Climate Change Action Summit on Monday.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Saturday a new state commission to review educational standards for teaching black history in the state.

The Washington National Cathedral will ring its largest funereal bell for one minute on Sunday to honor the first enslaved Africans who landed in North America, 400 years ago this month.

Some ecologists at the University of Maryland are worried that a large spot of low oxygen in the Chesapeake Bay could harm the state’s seafood industry.

Some ecologists at the University of Maryland are worried that a large spot of low oxygen in the Chesapeake Bay could harm the state’s seafood industry.

A photo of a 3-year-old girl high-fiving a mural painting of Harriet Tubman in Dorchester County, Maryland, is sparking personal reflections and inspiring users on social media.

Due to climate change, storms will likely hit the Chesapeake Bay watershed more often and drop more rain and snow, a serious danger to go with rising seas and rising temperatures. The increased precipitation threatens to intensify the pollution that federal, state and local governments have worked for decades to mitigate. “We know it’s going to get wetter and wilder...

The health of the Chesapeake Bay is in jeopardy as we continue to see more extreme weather events. News4’s Wendy Rieger explains how a record rainfall killed much of the bay’s oysters and the negative impact climate change has on the area’s economy.

Historians say they were “shocked” and “mystified” when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam wrongly used the term “indentured servants” Sunday in reference to the first Africans to arrive in English North America 400 years ago.
Most historians abandoned use of the term in the 1990s after historical records left little room for doubt that the Africans were enslaved, the scholars said.

One after another, landmark U.S. protections for climate, air and land are in the crosshairs of the Trump administration as his agency leaders move past early fumbles and scandals to start delivering on a succession of promised environmental rollbacks. On Thursday, the Interior Department proposed easing rules on oil and gas drilling for millions of acres of range in the...

Tropical Storm Florence has left at least 5 people dead since hitting the Carolina coast on Friday.

Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Florence have caused a slope to collapse at a coal ash landfill at a closed power station outside Wilmington, North Carolina, Duke Energy officials confirmed. Duke spokeswoman Paige Sheehan said Saturday evening that about 2,000 cubic yards (1,530 cubic meters) of ash have been displaced at the Sutton Plant and that contaminated storm water likely...

The Marines, the Coast Guard, civilian crews and volunteers used helicopters, boats and heavy-duty vehicles Saturday to rescue scores of people trapped by Florence’s shoreline onslaught, even as North Carolina braced for what could be the next stage of the disaster: widespread, catastrophic flooding inland. The death toll from the hurricane-turned-tropical storm climbed to at least 14, including an infant....

Just months ago, disaster planners simulated a Category 4 hurricane strike alarmingly similar to the real-word scenario now unfolding on a dangerously vulnerable stretch of the East Coast. A fictional “Hurricane Cora” barreled into southeast Virginia and up the Chesapeake Bay to strike Washington, D.C., in the narrative created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Argonne National Laboratory. The...