The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a proposal Wednesday to increase the critical habitat designation for southern resident killer whales by more than sevenfold under the Endangered Species Act.
Along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, nearly 20,000 Ospreys now arrive to nest each spring — the largest concentration of breeding pairs in the world. Two-thirds of them nest on buoys and channel markers maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard, who have become de facto Osprey guardians.
The bill authorizes $10.6 billion for the Coast Guard in fiscal year 2019, a roughly 16 percent increase from 2017 that would help modernize its aging fleet of cutters and aircraft. The Coast Guard is the primary federal authority for maritime safety and security on the U.S. coast and in ports and inland waterways.