Dauphin Island

The Coast Guard recovered the bodies of two boaters off the Alabama coast but suspended the search for a missing 7-year-old boy after combing the area over the weekend. Searchers were unable to find Hunter Slezak. He was on a boat that went missing Friday.

The application deadline is approaching for interested Alabama 6th and 7th grade students to apply to the Estuary Corps Middle School Program. Middle school students are invited to engage in activities that explore and improve the Mobile Bay Estuarine system during the three-day program.

Mardi Gras is in full swing along the Gulf coast. One favorite carnival tradition is called a King Cake. It’s a large pastry shaped like a crown with cinnamon, chocolate, or cream cheese filling inside. It’s usually covered in gold, green, and purple sprinkles. There’s also a Fat Tuesday tradition that whoever finds the small, plastic baby hidden in a slice of king cake is granted good luck. They also have to bring a King Cake to the next gathering. Here’s the story of one Dauphin Island baker and how her Mardi Gras cakes are a family tradition…

The countdown to Mardi Gras begins in New Orleans as Carnival season kicks off with dozens of costumed revelers and a brass band set to crowd onto a streetcar for a nighttime ride down historic St. Charles Avenue. Meanwhile, a walking club in the French Quarter will march in its annual procession honoring Joan of Arc. Dauphin Island’s Krewe de la Dauphine parade is this coming Saturday.

Oyster habitats are rapidly disappearing around the world. That doesn’t just mean losing a delicacy. Oysters also play a major role in coastal environments. A team of scientists on Mobile Bay is working to turn that loss around. That effort may have national impact.

It’s more than tourists flocking to Alabama’s beaches during the summer. This is also prime time for endangered sea turtles are crawling ashore on the Gulf Coast and laying hundreds of eggs. Marine biologists say this is the same spot where many of these turtles hatched years ago.

Families are beating the summer heat and taking a trip back to nature this summer. The Alabama Aquarium is offering Salt Marsh Excursions throughout the month of July.

There are plenty of alligators in Alabama. But how many enjoy a day at the beach? One such unlikely critter was spotted riding the waves recently on Dauphin Island, bobbing calmly near the human beachgoers.

Mardi Gras is in full swing in the Mobile area. For the Fat Tuesday celebration, Dauphin Island becomes home to the Massacre Island Secret Society

The search for a University of Southern Mississippi student who went missing Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico has been suspended by the U.S. Coast Guard.…