The depth of ships’ drafts, or the distance between the waterline and the deepest point of the boat, are now limited to 41 feet upriver of the port of Baton Rouge, the nation’s eighth-largest by tonnage, the U.S. Coast Guard said late Friday. That’s down from 45 feet, a level at which vessels are encountering problems as spreading drought in the U.S. midwest dries up the waterway, a critical freight artery. 

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter seized an estimated $48 million in illicit drugs from a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman earlier this week, bringing an international maritime task force’s total to more than $300 million in drug busts so far this year.

As of Friday, the Mississippi river was still closed near Stack Island, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee. That has resulted in a backup of more than 2,000 barges at various points, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Dredging activities are currently paused, and officials plan to reopen the waterway with restrictions when it has been determined safe to do so. 

Two Russians who said they fled the country to avoid military service have requested asylum in the U.S. after landing in a small boat on a remote Alaska island in the Bering Sea, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's office said Thursday.

The U.S. Coast Guard and St. Thomas Rescue are assisting in the search for a 30-year-old woman who may be adrift after a marine incident in the British Virgin Islands.

Coast Guard units from all over Florida and the Southeast are participating in search-and-rescue missions along Hurricane Ian's destructive path.

U.S. Army helicopters have been employed to fly residents stranded on Sanibel Island by Hurricane Ian to Florida’s mainland.

U.S. service members were working “around the clock” to clear debris and rescue stranded people in at least 20 Florida counties hit by Hurricane Ian, military officials said as the storm made its second landfall in South Carolina.

The U.S. seized nearly $100 million in illicit drugs this week from fishing vessels in the Gulf of Oman as part of a multinational effort in the Middle East to stem the tide of trafficking on the seas, Navy officials said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the 5,000 troops to active duty, sending them to stage in armories across the state and prepare to rapidly respond to the hurricane after it makes landfall.

The crew of the Honolulu-based cutter Kimball was on a routine patrol of the Bering Sea on Sept. 19 when they encountered the Chinese guided-missile cruiser Renhai about 75 nautical miles north of Kiska Island, Alaska.

The Coast Guard’s fast response cutter Oliver Henry returned home to Guam this week after completing a 43-day expeditionary patrol across Oceania intended to usher in a greater presence in the region by the service.

The 70-page class action suit, filed on behalf of an estimated 1,200 service members who refused to be vaccinated for religious reasons, challenges the Coast Guard’s “across-the-board” denial of exemptions and seeks to prevent the impending dismissal of the three Coast Guard members.

Up and down Alaska’s Bering Sea coast, the scope of destruction left by a historic storm is becoming clear. The Alaska National Guard said 20 State Defense Force members had been activated and at least 40 guardsmen would also be activated to help with the recovery process,

The Coast Guard will step up operations in the increasingly contested Arctic region, crack down on illegal fishing and forced labor, and improve oil spill response under legislation approved by a Senate committee wary of competition from Russia and China.

Half of the 39 Coast Guard units based on the Pacific Northwest coast lack tsunami evacuation plans for their personnel, despite their location in a high-risk zone for such a disaster, according to a new government watchdog report.

Coast Guard District 14, headquartered in Honolulu, is the largest of the service's operating districts, spanning 14 million square miles of land and sea.

The Coast Guard’s assistance — prized by coastal African nations afflicted by criminal cartels and terror networks — helps foster relationships that counter Chinese and Russian bids for influence and resources, U.S. officials say.

The Solomon Islands recently denied entry to a U.S. Coast Guard cutter for a scheduled port call, further raising concerns that the Oceania nation is severing U.S. ties in favor of China.