Environment

In August, a group of scientists announced they may have found the oldest living vertebrate, the slow-going Greenland Shark. Among the researchers involved was one from the Virginia Institute for Marine Science. 

You’ve no doubt heard about carbon footprints – measures of how much a person or corporation pollutes the atmosphere with carbon.  Now, the University of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation want people to consider another pollutant – nitrogen –a big problem for the bay. 

It’s common in college towns to find tensions between students and long-time residents. In Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia, two students have set out to improve so-called town-gown relations with a program that cultivates friendships through gardening. 

Westhaven is a small neighborhood between the University of Virginia and downtown Charlottesville - a collection of small homes, many built in the early 20th century, and to newer, subsidized town homes for low income families.

“It’s public housing, so you only have so much space.”

Scientists know more about the blue crab than just about any other species in the Chesapeake Bay. So when millions of young crabs vanished in 2012, scientists became detectives, searching for clues.

A fish crucial to Chesapeake Bay crabbers and Virginia's omega-3 oil industry is proving to be one of the most controversial, as Atlantic fisheries managers struggled this week at their summer meeting to determine how much should be caught.