TAMPA, Fla. -- Environmental groups are urging federal lawmakers to allocate $10 billion in the upcoming infrastructure package for coastal restoration projects to prevent flooding and bolster the economy.

The move would have a big impact on Florida, where tidal flooding has increased by 352% since 2000.

More than 100 groups have signed a letter in support of funding for coastal projects in the American Jobs Plan.

Jean Flemma, director of the Ocean Defense Initiative and co-founder of the Urban Ocean, noted Florida is an area that needs these projects to start now.

"Florida is 'ground zero' for sea-level rise, and storms that are increasing in intensity and severity," Flemma stated. "Implementing coastal-restoration projects that provide that natural buffer against storms and rising seas will be incredibly important."

A University of California-Santa Cruz report found Florida mangroves prevented $1.5 billion worth of flood damage during Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Flemma pointed out 18 of the 34 coastal states have identified more than $6 billion worth of projects they would undertake if they had the funding.

Projects would also create jobs in a wide range of industries, Flemma explained.

"Everything from engineers, to work in shoreline stabilization, marine debris removal, even landscape architects, and people that are going to actually go in and do the work, planting seagrass or restoring a wetland," Flemma outlined.

Coastal-restoration projects backed by stimulus money created around 15 jobs for every million dollars of investment, according to a 2017 analysis from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Nicolas Lama, youth leadership council member for EarthEcho International, said it is vital to bolster coastal resilience efforts in Florida, not only to create jobs, but to mitigate climate change.

"The reality of the climate crisis in our state is, it's not some far away issue, it's one that Congress needs to take action on now," Lama asserted. "We stand to lose so much from climate change here in Florida. And young Floridians like myself are worried about the future of our state."

According to NOAA, there were a record-breaking 30 named storms in the 2020 hurricane season, 14 of which became hurricanes.

Small sections of the kelp forests off the Mendocino coast are starting to recover with improved environmental conditions, thanks to a conservation program which sent divers to remove 45,000 pounds of purple sea urchins.

The urchins have devastated the once massive bull kelp forests, leaving a lifeless barren behind.

Dan Abbott, kelp forest program director for the Reef Check Foundation, said it is the first large-scale kelp-restoration project of its kind in northern California.

"It's not back to where it was, say pre-2015," Abbott acknowledged. "It's still only about 20% of the historical average. But again, it's only like a year and a half in. And it's a very encouraging result."

The purple sea-urchin population has exploded in the last eight years or so, partially because a wasting disease has decimated their chief predator, the sea star. In addition, the area has no sea otters to keep the urchins in check, because the otters were hunted to extinction in the early 1900s.

Sheila Semans, director of the Noyo Center for Marine Science in Fort Bragg, said the kelp forests there have recovered 5 to 10 percent - and serve as crucial habitat for hundreds of species.

"The sea lions hunt in it, the abalone eat it, the rockfish hide in it," Semans outlined. "There's just so many ecosystem services that it provides. On top of that, it sequesters carbon, and it buffers wave action along the coast."

The Noyo Center also is working to create a new fishery for purple urchins, which can be fattened up in an aquaculture facility and sold. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said it plans to develop a comprehensive statewide Kelp Recovery and Management Plan over the next five to 10 years.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Marine-conservation groups are celebrating after the U.S. House passed the America COMPETES Act on Friday.

The bill primarily boosts semiconductor production in the U.S. but a lesser-known provision would phase out an older type of fishing gear called drift gill nets in federal waters, something environmental groups have sought for decades.

Ben Enticknap is Pacific campaign manager and senior scientist at the nonprofit Oceana. He said the mile-long, nearly invisible gill nets are incredibly dangerous for marine life.

"They are set at night in the epicenter of ocean wildlife off the coast of southern California to catch swordfish," said Enticknap. "But they also catch whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks and many, many other animals."

The state of California already is phasing out its state drift gillnet permit program, which offers fishing crews cash to turn in their nets and permits, and helps them buy a new, safer type of gear called deep-set buoy gear.

All but four fishing boat captains in Southern California have begun the transition - and those four will have to follow if the bill becomes law.

Opponents of the bill, referring primarily to its provisions on manufacturing, say it is not tough enough on China.

Enticknap noted that it also would ban the sale of shark fins in the United States.

"We've already prohibited shark fins in California and Oregon and Washington," said Enticknap. "And this kind of takes that same approach that's already been passed by a number of states and makes it national."

A version of the COMPETES Act already has passed the U.S. Senate. Now the two have to be reconciled and passed again in both chambers before the final version can go to President Joe Biden's desk.

SAN DIEGUITO LAGOO, Calif. - Coastal protection groups are pressing California to prioritize so-called "blue carbon" ecosystems in the fight against climate change.

Dozens of groups have sent a letter to the head of the California Natural Resources Agency - asking for action to protect existing wetlands and near-shore areas, and restore those that have been degraded.

Gilly Lyons, an officer with the Conserving Marine Life in the United States program of The Pew Charitable Trusts, is among those who signed the letter.

"The request from the signers is to protect biodiversity, to store and sequester carbon, and to mitigate the effects of climate change that we're already living with," said Lyons, "things like ocean acidification, storm surges, coastal flooding, etc."

The letter comes during the public comment period for a draft of the CNRA's new "Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy," to be finalized early next year.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order requiring state agencies to act to accelerate the natural removal of carbon and build climate resilience, especially in lower-income communities.

Angela Kemsley is conservation and communication manager at the group WILDCOAST, which is currently restoring two lagoons in San Diego County. She said natural features like eelgrass beds are important tools in climate mitigation.

"They're actually much more efficient at storing this carbon than land-based plants," said Kemsley. "And so, they're able to take a bunch of carbon out of the atmosphere, store it in the soil - and that helps to fight climate change."

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 90% of California's historic wetlands have been drained for agriculture and development over the past century.