Georgia coast

Trash on the beach: This may conjure an image of plastic bags or bottles washed up on the sand. But a lot of the plastic in the ocean is very small, even microscopic. It’s called microplastic, and a study of the Georgia coast finds that most it is coming from our laundry. The tiny threads of plastic out there floating in the ocean known as microfibers come from things like sheets and clothes.

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A little bird that spends its winters on the Georgia coast is one of the animals most threatened from sea level rise, according to researchers.

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Saltmarsh sparrows are small, streaky brown-striped songbirds with a voice like a squeaky whisper.

They split their time the same way some humans do: They spend their winters on the Georgia coast, then head back up north in the spring. That's where the birds breed, in coastal marshes from Virginia up into Canada.

Federal officials are considering the impacts on wildlife from looking for oil and natural gas in the Atlantic Ocean, including off Georgia’s coast. And they’re asking for public comment on the plan for the next 30 days.

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It has not been a good year so far for North Atlantic right whales. The endangered animals have their calves off the coast of Georgia, and officials have seen only three calves so far.

In good years, back in the 2000s, wildlife biologist Clay George says there were 22 to 24 calves in a season, but there's been a downward trend over the past five years.