Environment

Florida and Georgia have been fighting over access to fresh water for decades.  And now Florida fishermen are paying for it. 

Italian coast guard divers worked throughout Sunday to free a sperm whale caught in fishing nets.

Polk County health officials have issued an advisory about apparent fuel contamination in Winter Haven's Lake Martha.

Saturday morning, dozens of volunteers with the Florida Aquarium, Keep Pinellas Beautiful and St. Petersburg College came out to get their hands dirty and plant hundreds of mangroves along the St. Petersburg shoreline. The trees may still be small, but they have a big job to do.

For all its natural beauty, the Nature Coast has not been protected as an aquatic preserve until Governor Ron DeSantis last night signed a bill passed in the legislature creating the Nature Coast Aquatic Preserve. It consists of more than 400,000 acres along the coast of Citrus, Hernando, and Pasco counties.

Further acknowledging that climate change is a growing concern in his state, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed into law a measure requiring public coastal construction projects to first be reviewed for impacts on the state's fragile seashore because of rising sea levels.

There was bipartisan outrage over a report that the Trump administration is preparing to open the door to oil and gas drilling off Florida’s Eastern Gulf-Coast after the November election. But the government says it's more "fake news."

As sea turtle nesting season gets underway, conservation groups are reminding beachgoers to fill in umbrella holes and remove other hazards from the beach to allow baby turtles the best chance at making their way to the water.

On Lido Beach, humans aren't the only ones taking advantage of the white sugary sand. 

Researchers in Florida have rediscovered an “ultra-rare” metallic blue bee that hadn’t been spotted in years – so long that experts weren’t sure it still existed.