by Rhode Island Sea Grant | Oct 25, 2025 | Coastal Communities, News
Tucked between weathered fences and manicured lawns, Rhode Island’s public rights-of-way to the shoreline often go unnoticed. These paths, sometimes no wider than 10 feet, are often overlooked as private property. A walking tour of the Potowomut neighborhood, a...
by Rhode Island Sea Grant | Oct 16, 2025 | Coastal Communities, News, Research
Microplastics have become a defining pollutant of our time—now detected from polar ice cores to human bloodstreams. These microscopic fragments, fibers, and beads—smaller than five millimeters and often invisible to the naked eye—form as common plastics break down...
by Rhode Island Sea Grant | Sep 19, 2025 | Coastal Communities, News
Aerial view of the Charlestown Breachway. Photo courtesy of the town of Charlestown. Following the damage to the Charlestown Breachway in late 2023 and early 2024 and the emergency repairs done, Charlestown is preparing for the permanent restoration. The town of...
by Rhode Island Sea Grant | Sep 18, 2025 | Coastal Communities, News
URI Research and Outreach Team Seeks Community Input on Priorities, Concerns Rhode Island is one of the most low-lying states in the U.S., and the town of Warren is among its most flood-vulnerable municipalities. A research and outreach team from the University of...
by Rhode Island Sea Grant | Sep 3, 2025 | Coastal Communities, News
Coastal geologist Janet Freedman talks about how high tides push seawater back up through the storm drain at the Oakland Beach seawall, flooding the parking lot. Wenley Ferguson is in the foreground in the Save The Bay t-shirt. Photo by Amanda Gilmore Warwick’s...
by Rhode Island Sea Grant | Sep 2, 2025 | Coastal Communities, News, Research
Earlier this summer, a first-of-its-kind study, funded by Rhode Island Sea Grant, mapped the movement and accumulation of microplastics in Narragansett Bay, finding the highest concentrations near urban centers, which are shaped by river runoff and wind patterns. Read...
