3:24 PM, October 7, 2008
From the Associated Press: MOSS LANDING, Calif.—Scientists say endangered leatherback turtles have returned to Monterey Bay to feast on jellyfish after nearly disappearing from the area in recent years.
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories researcher Scott Benson says marine biologists counted more than 300 of the giant endangered turtles in the bay this year.
Benson said a strong upwelling of nutrient-rich cold water this year brought greater stocks of jellyfish, which attracted the turtles.
Poor upwellings in previous years have sent the turtles elsewhere to find food.
The 70-million-year-old leatherback species is the largest of all sea turtles. Benson says the Pacific's leatherback population has declined by 90 to 95 percent in the last 25 years because of egg poaching and turtles getting caught in fishing gear.
Photo: Scott A. Eckert/Widecast
12:03 PM, October 7, 2008
From the Associated Press: ANCHORAGE -- The federal government will designate "critical habitat" for polar bears off Alaska's coast, a decision that could add restrictions to future offshore petroleum exploration or drilling.
Federal law prohibits agencies from taking actions that may adversely modify critical habitat and interfere with polar bear recovery. That probably will affect oil and gas activity, said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of three groups that sued to get a critical habitat designation. "Other than global warming, the worst thing that's going on in polar bear habitat right now is oil development and the potential for oil spills," Siegel said.
Bruce Woods, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, said it's not known what area in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska might be designated for polar bears, especially given that sea ice conditions are changing and areas now covered by ice might in the future be open water.
The agreement to designate critical habitat was filed Monday in Oakland as a partial settlement of a lawsuit brought by Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Siegel's group.
They sued in March after Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne missed a January deadline for declaring polar bears threatened or endangered.
Kempthorne on May 14 declared polar bears "threatened," or likely to become endangered, citing their need for sea ice, the dramatic loss of sea ice in recent decades and computer models that suggest sea ice is likely to further recede.
The settlement sets a deadline of June 30, 2010, for a final rule designating critical habitat for the polar bear.
Photo: Subhankar Banerjee / Associated Press
11:59 AM, October 7, 2008
At least 25% of the world's mammal species in the wild are threatened with extinction. This news comes from an international survey released Monday that blames the loss of wildlife habitat as well as hunting and poaching for the steep declines. Times staff writer Ken Weiss reports: The baiji, or Chinese river dolphin, is teetering on the edge of extinction and may have already joined the list of species that have vanished from Earth. Others are not far behind, such as the vaquita, a small porpoise that has been drowning in fishing nets in the northern part of the Gulf of California; the North Atlantic right whale; and various monkeys and other primates hunted by poachers in Africa.
Scientists have determined that about 25% of the world's 5,487 species of mammals face extinction. The proportion of marine mammals in trouble appears to be higher, with an estimated one-third under serious threat of being wiped out. Many are killed when they are struck by ships or become entangled in fishing gear and drown.
About half the world's remaining species of apes, monkeys and other primates face threats from hunting or deforestation to make way for farming, said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International.
For a photo gallery of endangered animals, including the black-footed ferret, above, click here.
Photo: Greg Wood / AFP/Getty Images
2:57 PM, August 14, 2008
Three common pesticides are helping push the Pacific Coast's prized but imperiled salmon closer to extinction according to a new federal report, Times staff writer Eric Bailey writes.
Bailey, who has followed the West Coast salmon industry's crisis this year, reports: The National Marine Fisheries report says the pesticides interfere with basic functions of the fish: their ability to find food, reproduce, even to swim. The three pesticides -- malathion, diazinon and chloripyrifos -- have been used for decades by farmers and home gardeners.
Joshua Osborne-Klein, an attorney with the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice, said the report pointed to a need to find alternatives to the chemicals.
The fisheries service is expected in coming months to make recommendations on potential remedies to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which governs pesticide use. Agency officials could order restrictions or prohibit use of the pesticides.
The sudden collapse of the chinook salmon run in California's Sacramento River, where the salmon return to spawn, has led to various government moves such as the federal government declaring the West Coast ocean salmon fishery "a failure," and the inking of a 10-year agreement between the United States and Canada aimed at preventing overfishing of salmon off the western coast of Canada and southeast Alaska.
That's not even mentioning another West Coast fish-related drama with the delta smelt.
-- Francisco Vara-Orta
Photo: Kimberly White / Bloomberg News
6:32 PM, August 10, 2008
This weekend in The Times, animal news abounds:
Margot Roosevelt reports: The California condor, a beloved but beleaguered bird, will be unable to survive on its own without a ban on lead ammunition across its vast western habitat, a scientific study has concluded.
Richard C. Paddock reports: Two firebomb attacks last week on UC Santa Cruz scientists who conduct animal research have angered and worried academics throughout the UC system, but the scientists say they will not be intimidated.
*Associated Press reports: Police don't apologize for shooting the two dogs of the mayor of Berwyn Heights in Maryland, described as an innocent victim in a marijuana smuggling scheme.*
On The Times' Outposts blog, Pete Thomas tells the fascinating tale of a woman who was attacked by a grizzly as she jogged on a trail Friday evening in Far North Bicentennial Park in Anchorage, Alaska.
Washington Post reports: Whole Foods Market has pulled fresh ground beef from all of its stores in the second E. coli outbreak linked to Nebraska Beef in as many months.
Home decor retailers face legal risks with animal artifacts such as feathers and bones from endangered species. Jeff Spurrier offers some tips on avoiding legal woes, including keeping proper documentation and being careful about online purchases.
*the first version of this post omitted the word "don't"
5:03 PM, June 9, 2008
After decades without a single survivor having been sighted, authorities on Friday declared the Caribbean monk seal extinct. The Associated Press reports: Humans hunting the docile creatures for research, food and blubber left the population unsustainable, say biologists who warn that Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals could be the next to go.
The last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was in 1952 between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service confirmed Friday that the species is extinct.
Kyle Baker, a biologist for NOAA's Fisheries Service southeast region, said the species is the only seal to become extinct from human causes.
Deemed easy hunting targets as far back as Columbus' second voyage to the Americas in 1494, the Caribbean monk seals' numbers steadily declined from a peak of 250,000 and were declared endangered in 1967.
 Biologists fear the Hawaiian monk seal, a close relative, pictured at right, could be the next to go. Facing its own pressures -- depleting beaches, coastal development, marine debris and global warming -- that seal's population is declining 4% annually, according to NOAA. If numbers fall below 1,000, it could become among the world's most endangered marine species.
So what now? Authorities are "working" to take Caribbean monk seals off the endangered species list, because as the AP points out, they're no longer endangered or even threatened. They're gone forever.
But as final as that sounds, there have been species that have unexpectedly reappeared years after they were thought to be extinct. The widely publicized post-extinction sightings of the ivory-billed woodpecker and the painted frog come to mind. Scientists call such organisms Lazarus species, referring to the biblical story of Lazarus rising from the dead. So maybe there is hope for the Caribbean monk seal after all.
-- Tony Barboza
Photo: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
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