To meet the demands of new large marine vessels, the Port Everglades in Florida needs to expand. The US Army Corps of Engineers is leading expansion efforts in the port with dredging planned to start in 2026 to deepen and widen the port to accommodate larger Panamax cargo ships and modern cruise liners. Challenges: Mitigating Environmental Impacts of Dredging The dredging project will displace a large amount of sediment into the water column, which could settle outside of the project area, burying benthic organisms like corals, and possibly carrying harmful particulates to other regions of the world. Dr. Enrique Montes, Associate Scientist of the University of Miami Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) affiliated to NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), is overseeing sediment monitoring off the channel of the Port.

For over a decade, Buffalo State University’s Great Lakes Center has maintained and operated a real-time monitoring buoy deployed off the coast of Dunkirk, New York, in Lake Erie's eastern basin. Funded by the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) and with field support from the NYSDEC Lake Erie Fisheries Research Unit, the buoy provides data to the local population and stakeholders as well as the larger Seagull database. Challenges: Public Data Reliance and Filling in Knowledge Gaps The purpose of the buoy is two-fold: Provide weather and wave data to the public in order to inform recreation and fishing operations. Contribute data to the multi-agency Seagull database. The Great Lakes Center operates one of only a few buoys in the eastern basin.

Leading up to the 21st century, the United States supported decades of dam construction in major waterways across the country. Many of these dams were hydroelectric facilities built in order to provide energy to nearby towns and cities. Unfortunately, these dams deteriorated the surrounding environment and harmed aquatic life. Many of these dams cut off migration routes for migratory fish like salmon and created reservoirs above the dam. These reservoirs are typically filled with still water that warms quickly over the summer, leading to declines in water quality and increases in algal blooms which, in turn, worsens the water quality further and impacts habitat suitability. For many dams, like the Klamath Dam in Washington, the cost of maintaining these facilities has outweighed any potential benefits they may have once provided. As a result, dams are being removed across the country in order to restore natural waterways and reopen critical pathways for fish migration. Challenge: Monitoring Dam Deconstruction