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The discovery of this new habitat is all the more surprising, since such hard corals have long been considered vulnerable to chemical contamination and oily discharges from oil wells and susceptible to being smothered by the discharges of sediment from the surface, when muds and cuttings are returned to the waters.

DAVENPORT, Calif. - The state acquired five miles of beaches and rugged coastline in Santa Cruz County on Friday, bringing public ownership to one of the longest stretches of private beachfront property in Northern California. The state Public Works Board voted to accept 407 beachfront acres of Coast Dairies Ranch, which consists of 6,845 acres of redwood forests, artichoke fields and rolling hills northwest of Santa Cruz. The beaches, including Panther Beach, Bonny Doon Beach and Davenport Bluffs, will become part of a new state park that will be opened to the public and patrolled by rangers over the next...

Scientists Discover Undersea Volcano Off Antarctica http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/newsroom/images/news_images/volcano_still_th.jpg   An artist's depiction of the track of the camera array as it is towed over the volcanic cone. Credit: Trent Schindler / National Science FoundationSelect image for larger version(Size: 216KB)     The underwater video array is prepared for deployment. Credit: National Science Foundation / Hamilton CollegeSelect image for larger version(Size: 96KB)     The icy deck of the Laurence M. Gould. Credit: NSF / Hamilton CollegeSelect image for larger version(Size: 300KB)     Larger versions of all images from this document    Note About Images ARLINGTON, Va.-Scientists working in the stormy...

Rather than read the various media interpretations, here's the commission's press release in its entirety. April 20, 2004 Press Statement: A Blueprint for U.S. National Ocean Policy for the 21st Century: U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy Releases Preliminary ReportOceans in Serious Trouble: Must Act Now Delicate Balance Between Use and Sustainability is Key to Future of Our Oceans Historic Report to be Reviewed By Governors and Stakeholders Washington, D.C. – Calling on Congress and President Bush to establish a new national ocean policy that balances use with sustainability, is based on sound science and educational excellence, and moves toward an...

Among the New Year’s many unappreciated gifts to the seafood industry and ultimately to every industry reliant upon nature’s resources is the $2.5 million PEW-funded study by U.S. academics claiming high contaminant levels of PCBs in farmed salmon. That well-planned and funded assault on the global seafood trade has European nations eyeing the credibility of the United States research community with the same anger and derision portrayed in the 1958 novel, “The Ugly American” authored by Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer. Imperious, incompetent, arrogant, and erroneous are reflective of the invectives being hurled at the so-called “U.S. study.” Eastern...

U.S. EPA Orders Seven-Up to clean up waste water discharge from Sacramento facility For Immediate Release: March 25, 2004 Contact: Lisa Fasano, 415-947-4307 Press Office Main Line: (415) 947-8700 SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently ordered the Seven-Up/RC Bottling Company Inc. of San Francisco to immediately comply with the federal Clean Water Act at the company's Sacramento facility. Stormwater polluted by industrial materials such as fuel and battery acid runs off from the Seven-Up plant at 2670 Land Avenue, in Sacramento, a violation of facility's storm water discharge permit. In addition, the industrial wastewater discharged by...

Advocates of a United Nations treaty that would severely erode US sovereignty and national security were stealthily trying to push the measure through the Senate - until Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma invited Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney and former treaty negotiator Peter Leitner to tear the treaty apart. With the Bush Administration focused on fighting terrorism, arms-controllers within the bureaucracy have been working quietly with their allies in the Senate to ratify the UN Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) without the proper vetting from senior officials appointed by the president. In a recent meeting with conservative...

Say marine mammals depleting fish supply PORTLAND -- Columbia River smelt, salmon and sturgeon are being gobbled up by hungry seals and sea lions at alarming rates, according to fishermen in Oregon and Washington. When smelt were in the Cowlitz River recently, a pack of eight to 10 sea lions would swoop in and "blow the smelt right off the spawning beds," Bruce Crookshanks, a Cowlitz County commercial fisherman, said at a hearing this past week to set salmon-fishing seasons. Seals and sea lions are protected species under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. "You've got a major predator problem,"...

Researchers Try to Unravel Mystery of Disappearing Eels Mar 20, 2004 Virginia Smith/ The Associated Press ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) - At 3:30 a.m., Kim Tugend sweeps a dip net across the face of the Guana River dam. From the concrete ledge in the dam house, it is a steep drop to the water, and Tugend's net is long and unwieldy. Her only light comes from her tiny headlamp. From the ledge, in the dark, she can see tiny jellyfish flashing an otherworldly purple light, and the churning waters are deafening. When she pulls her net up and empties it...

SAN FRANCISCO – The federal government banned commercial fishing for swordfish in a large swath of the Pacific Ocean in order to protect endangered sea turtles that were being killed or injured by the hooks. The new rules, released Thursday by the National Marine Fisheries Service, mean that longline fishing for swordfish will be prohibited in a 1,600-mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean between the West Coast and Hawaii. The ban is scheduled to take effect on April 12 and will affect about two dozen fishing boats based in California, Oregon and Washington. Recreational fishing is not affected. "It's an...

Stalin's last army - hordes of gigantic crabs on their way to invade Europe - By Julius Strauss in Kirkenes, northern Norway (Filed: 28/02/2004) Millions of giant Pacific crabs, whose ancestors were brought to Europe by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, are marching south along Norway's coast, devouring everything in their path. The monster crabs, which can weigh up to 25lb and have a claw-span of more than three feet, are proving so resilient that scientists fear they could end up as far south as Gibraltar. Energised by a mysterious population explosion a decade ago, whole armies of the crustaceans...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Great Barrier Reef will lose most of its coral cover by 2050 and, at worst, the world's largest coral system could collapse by 2100 because of global warming, a study released on Saturday said. The study by Queensland University's Center for Marine Studies, commissioned by the Worldwide Fund for Nature, said that the destruction of coral on the Great Barrier Reef was inevitable due to global warming, regardless of what actions were taken now. "Under the worst-case scenario, coral populations will collapse by 2100 and the re-establishment of coral reefs will be highly unlikely over the...

Scientists agree that coral reefs are in an alarming global state of decline. However, determining the main cause or causes of this decline has proven a much more contentious issue. In the current edition of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (JEMBE), Harbor Branch marine scientist Dr.Brian Lapointe and colleagues present new evidence they hope will help settle one major debate: whether pollution or overfishing is the main cause of the coral-smothering spread of seaweed on many reefs. The research suggests that pollution from such sources as sewage and agricultural runoff is the main culprit, a conclusion that...

SAN ONOFRE, Calif., – Thousands of large sardines, some up to a foot long, died this week when they were sucked into intake tunnels at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, officials said. About 13,500 pounds of the thin, silvery fish were killed in a 24-hour period between Monday and Tuesday, said Ray Golden, spokesman for Southern California Edison, which is the majority owner of the plant. The fish appeared to have been swimming near shore to escape choppy seas off the coast of northern San Diego County, Golden said Wednesday. The mass fish deaths were an oddity, according to...

Navy boards illegal fishing boat A NAVY boarding party rappelled down ropes from a helicopter to seize a suspected illegal fishing boat in treacherous Antarctic seas, the federal government said today. The boat, Maya V, was apprehended late yesterday for suspected poaching within Australia's economic zone around the remote Heard and McDonald Islands, more than 4000km south-west of Perth. "Our frigate HMAS Warramunga and her sailors on patrol in Australia's southern oceans battled extremely bad weather and high seas to intercept and board the Maya V," Defence Minister Robert Hill said in a statement. "It is a credit to their...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Mr. Bill, the "Saturday Night Live" clay character from the 1970s whose misadventures usually left him squished, will be part of a campaign aimed at teaching people - especially children - how Louisiana is losing its coastal marshes and swamps. "I wish I had a quick three-word synopsis for it other than maybe Mr. Bill says 'Ohh, nooo!!! - the coastal erosion,'" said Walter Williams, Mr. Bill's creator and a native of New Orleans. The campaign will be launched next summer with Mr. Bill and a gang...

The American lobster fails to "get it on" with European female lobsters. This will probably save the European population of lobsters. Norwegian fishermen caught American lobsters within the Oslo fjord. Scientists who warned that the european species risked beeing jostled out because of the import of the American relative, now sound the all-clear according to TT (Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå). The courting of the American lobster male runs smooth, until it is time for the finale. Then the male suddenly becomes unsure - since he does not recognise the anatomy of the female lobster.

SAN VALENTIN, Mexico - Laws barring the killing of protected sea turtles and the sale of their eggs have been as effective as anti-drug trafficking programs: driving the practice underground but failing to stop it. The latest threat is a horseback-riding gang whose members wield Kalashnikov rifles to drive away police and unarmed environmental activists. Centuries-old traditions make the turtles, and especially their eggs, highly prized in Mexico, where officials have spent decades trying to protect the sea creatures. Turtle eggs can still be found at rural markets and restaurants in many parts of southern Mexico, though they are sometimes...

Are You Eating Cancerous Salmon? By Ronald Bailey Smoked salmon with capers and onions was featured at brunch at a friend's house this past Sunday. I dug in and enjoyed two helpings, despite last week's dire headlines that I was recklessly gambling with cancer. Those alarming headlines were based on the study "Global Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Farmed Salmon" published in Science. That study tested 700 samples of salmon from Europe and South and North America for the presence of various man-made contaminants. The researchers supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts especially focused on poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCB) levels in...

Landmark Environmental Law Put On Hold Governor Says There Isn't Enough Money To Fund Project MONTEREY, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is putting a landmark environmental law on hold, saying there isn't enough money to continue funding the project. The legislation is known as the Marine Preservation Life Act. It requires the state to create more marine reserves off the California coastline by 2005. The law was passed in 1999 under the Clinton administration as a way to preserve endangered fish in California waters. Many marine biologists Action News spoke with Tuesday said they're enraged by the governor's action, calling...

<p>In a major shift in environmental policy, the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to put on ``indefinite hold'' a landmark plan to create a network of marine reserves off California's coast designed to restore collapsing marine species, the Mercury News has learned.</p>

<p>A new organization will work to protect open space on the San Mateo County coast, starting with an effort to extend the boundaries of a local open space agency to the ocean, a coalition of conservation groups announced Monday.</p> <p>The Committee for Green Foothills, Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation and several other groups said they will combine forces through the Coastal Open Space Alliance, a new initiative to prevent Silicon Valley-style development on the coast.</p>

<p>Orange County supervisors have learned firsthand what so many California property owners have learned by experience: The California Coastal Commission, the state agency that oversees coastal development, exerts near-dictatorial powers.</p> <p>On Dec. 16, the county board voted 3-0, with two supervisors absent, to begin emergency clearing of willow trees, overgrown vegetation, old shopping carts and other gunk that is gumming up San Diego Creek near the UC Irvine campus to prevent possible flooding.</p>

<p>Diners who are partial to salmon should avoid most farm-raised varieties, which often contain dangerous levels of cancer-causing contaminants, according to a major new international study that compared commercially bred salmon with their wild counterparts.</p> <p>The orange-fleshed fish can harbor so many toxic substances that salmon eaters in the San Francisco area should ration their intake to one eight-ounce farmed salmon steak every two months, the researchers found. The two-year study, published today in the journal Science, found that farm-raised salmon has about 10 times the level of environmental toxins of wild fish -- largely because the farmed variety are fed other fish harvested from waters close to sources of industrial runoff.</p>

Farm-raised salmon, a growing staple of American diets, contains significantly higher concentrations of PCBs, dioxin and other cancer-causing contaminants than salmon caught in the wild and should be eaten infrequently, according to a new study of commercial fish sold in North America, South America and Europe. The study, using Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) health guidelines, concluded that while consumers could safely eat four to eight meals of wild salmon a month, consumption of more than one eight-ounce portion of farmed salmon a month in most cases poses an "unacceptable cancer risk." People in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. MADEIRA BEACH -- A Madeira Beach company is contemplating legal action after a federal agency refused to issue a special fishing permit for a fish farm off Johns Pass. The National Marine Fisheries Service denied the permit for Florida Offshore Aquaculture Inc., a company that has spent two years developing a permit application. The permit would have allowed the company to use a fish farm as a two-year feasibility study for growing fish in cages submerged 33 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. For regulators and environmentalists, the project would...

For the endangered North Atlantic right whale, these are trying times. These leviathans who live and migrate in waters along the East Coast of North America teeter closer to the brink of extinction than perhaps any other whale species. Their population is tiny - less than 350 - and continues to shrink. By some estimates, if current population trends hold, the species will vanish within the next 200 years. Yet for scientists and conservationists anxious about the future of these creatures, rays of hope are beginning to pierce an otherwise gloomy horizon. Thanks to a surge of scientific research and...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. PROVIDENCIALES, Turks & Caicos Islands -- Chuck Hesse doesn't look like a conch farmer. He wears khaki shorts and walks barefoot around his ranch on the eastern tip of Providenciales, one of 40 islands between the Bahamas and Haiti that make up Turks & Caicos. His long gray beard recalls the Grateful Dead. Hesse does not live within a shell. The effervescent marine biologist attended the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was a classmate of football great Roger Staubach. Hesse became a nuclear submarine officer and earned a master's degree in...

Fish quotas aim to halt declineA deal on fishing quotas designed to reverse the decline of several species has been agreed by the European Union. It contains strict measures aimed at reversing the fall in cod numbers and cuts the amount of hake to be caught. But the North Sea fishing fleet can now catch 30% more prawns and 53% more haddock, because of flourishing stocks. Fishermen's leaders and environmental groups criticised the deal, which aims to strike a balance between conserving stocks and protecting the industry. Scottish trawlersThe agreement, which freezes cod and hake catches at last year's levels,...

<p>CLARKSBURG -- They line the shores from Clarksburg to Rio Vista on many a Delta afternoon. Fishing poles in hand, they are focused on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River estuary, which could deliver their next meal.</p> <p>They are Vietnamese, Filipino and Russian fishermen. Some of them subsist on what they catch. Many are unaware that, for nearly a decade, state health officials have urged anglers to limit their consumption of certain Delta fish because of mercury, PCBs and other toxic contaminants.</p>

EPA allows ship sunk in Canadian fishery Agency designated where the derelict should be dumped; now it may have to remove it By Paul Singer Washington Bureau December 20, 2003 WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued a routine permit allowing a private salvage company to sink a 140-foot wooden ship in the Pacific Ocean last month, but an error on the permit led the company to dump the ship in waters claimed by Canada. Now the ship sits under 1,500 feet of water, loaded with 200 tons of concrete to keep it down. It's resting right in the middle...

When Nerilie Abram first arrived at the Mentawai Islands southwest of Sumatra in 2000, she was expecting to find a thriving coral reef and its ecosystem. Instead, she and her co-workers found dead coral with no fish. Local people told Abram that the coral began to die in 1997, an El Niño year, when an algal bloom had smothered the reef. But the upwelling warm water from El Niño alone was not strong enough to create the bloom, Abram says. And evidence from coral cores showed the reef had survived even stronger upwellings. “So we looked for a stronger nutrient...

Mississippi is one of five states that has proposed a site in a competition to become the watery grave for an aircraft carrier. The 888-foot USS Oriskany is a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. It will be the largest vessel deliberately sunk as an artificial reef in the United States, probably in August or September 2004. The Oriskany will be the first to go down in a new Navy program to get rid of obsolete warships by sinking them as a cheaper alternative to the scrap yard. Mississippi is competing with Florida and Texas for the site, along...

Scientists have made the extraordinary discovery in Chile of a hidden nursery where blue whales go in large numbers to rear their young and to feed. The find, in the south of the country, will help researchers understand the behaviour and migration of blue whales, aiding conservation measures. The iconic blue whale is the largest mammal on Earth and was driven to near-extinction by commercial whaling. Details of the find are published in the scientific journal Biology Letters. The researchers claim the area, located in a sheltered network of fjords surrounded by long-dormant volcanoes, is one of the most important...

LOS ANGELES - An ocean advocacy group honored Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday night during a star-studded event. The Washington-based environmental group said it chose Clinton, D-N.Y., because she has championed environmental and conservation issues. .... Since she was elected in 2000, Clinton has fought to protect New York City residents from potentially harmful World Trade Center rubble. She also has prodded Congress to reauthorize a special tax to pay for Superfund toxic waste cleanups. Before accepting the Ocean Partners award, Clinton criticized President Bush's environmental record. "I think we have lost some ground," she said. "We passed some...

The red sea urchin found in the shallow waters of the Pacific Ocean is one of the Earth's longest-living animals. The small, spiny creature can last for more than 200 years with few signs of age-related disease, a US research team from Oregon and California has found. The animal, which grows to more than 15 cm across, grazes on marine plants and uses its spines to deter predators. "No animal lives forever, but these red sea urchins appear to be practically immortal," said Dr Thomas Ebert. The urchins (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) were once considered the scourge of the sea. They ate...

It's seen its last days of combat, but a 58-year-old aircraft carrier docked in Beaumont may become the Holy Grail of artificial reefs. Texas and several other coastal states are expected to do battle over the USS Oriskany, the first carrier to be donated by the Navy for use as an artificial reef. Applications were due Thursday to the U.S. Maritime Administration. For state reef builders, the competition is akin to that for a Super Bowl or the Olympics. "I can't think of any place that has sunk an aircraft carrier," said Paul Hammerschmidt, the director of Texas' artificial reef...

<p>An inspection of deeper-water Caribbean coral reefs found them healthier than previously believed, scientists said.</p> <p>A three-year survey of 20 coral reef areas in the western Atlantic found those in 20 feet (6 meters) to 65 feet (19.5 meters) of water had an average of 26 percent living coral cover.</p>

AUCKLAND (AFP) - A pod of 12 sperm whales, some 10 metres long and weighing up to 12 tonnes, have beached themselves on Auckland's west coast and died. The whales, thought to be mostly females with a young calf, were stranded over a five kilometre (three mile) stretch of beach at the mouth of Manukau Harbour, drawing a crowd of about 1,500 curious onlookers Sunday. It was not clear why the animals became marooned but it was "a significant stranding event" of sperm whales, the like of which had not been seen for 20 to 30 years, Department of Conservation...

Herring Break Wind to Communicate, Study Suggests James Owen in England for National Geographic News November 10, 2003 In polite society, flatulence is often a social faux pas—especially when issued deliberately. But in the world of fish, group "raspberry-blowing" sessions appear to perform an important social role. This intriguing idea comes from scientists who discovered that herring create a mysterious underwater noise by farting. Researchers suspect herring hear the bubbles as they're expelled, helping the fish form protective shoals at night. It's the first ever study to suggest fish communicate by breaking wind. Read the full story >> Herring may...

PARIS, Nov 11 (AFP) - Herrings appear to be sociable fish who like to communicate among themselves and use their natural flatulence to do so, a team of British and Canadian researchers has reported. A report in the British review Biology Letters describes how the researchers studied the sounds produced by two kinds of captive, wild-caught herring. "At night herring squeeze bubbles out of their swimbladders through an anal pore, producing sounds not unlike people blowing raspberries," the team of three recounts. The Pacific species (Clupea pallasii) were found to emit distinctive bursts of pulses, known as fast repetitive tick...

By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc PEABODY, Mass. ‹ The New England Fishery Management Council adopted a historic set of fishing restrictions just before midnight Thursday despite the objections of Maine representatives who said the rules will devastate the state's industry. The cutback plan also drew criticism from conservationists whose federal lawsuit has been driving the new restrictions known as Amendment 13. "It's over. I don't think people realize how fast this is going to happen," said Michael Love, whose Portland-based fishing boat would be cut from 100 to 60 primary fishing...