Dungeness Crab Fishery Is Closed Early Again to Prevent Whale Entanglements
Dungeness crabbers finished the season without a single whale entanglement, unlike past years, but they paid a price.
Category: Nature News
News from around the conservation world of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Avian Flu Claims at Least 7 California Condors—and a Beloved Bay Area Peregrine Falcon
Avian flu is hitting close to home, and it isn't going anywhere anytime soon. California condors and a beloved San Jose falcon are the newest victims of this epidemic that is sweeping through domestic and wild bird populations worldwide.
Why State Wildlife Officials Took a Mountain Lion Cub From the Wild … Then Put It Back
It's the first time a cub has ever been successfully reunited with its mom. But some local residents say it shouldn’t have been taken in the first place.
A Nasty Salmon-Killing Tire Chemical Is in Bay Waterways. Can It Be Cleaned Up?
6PPD-quinone comes from a long-used chemical that will be hard to replace in tires. But green infrastructure like "living levees" may help trap it.
After 2022’s Fatal Algal Bloom, Scientists Fear the Bay’s Sturgeon Could Go Extinct
At Point Pinole, 21 sturgeon carcasses––some more than seven feet long––lay strewn along a mile-long stretch of beach in late August 2022, baking in the relentless heat. It was the peak of the largest harmful algal bloom on record in … Read more
The Sea Otter That Stole a Surfboard in Santa Cruz Remains Free … For Now
She was born in captivity, it turns out. And she'll only get to stay free and wild if she behaves—so humans should definitely not feed her, take selfies with her, or try to be her friend.
The Nearly Unkillable Eucalyptus Meets Its Match
Eucalyptus trees on Albany Hill are wasting away from blight. Some people may cheer—but these trees are also home to endangered monarchs.
On the Enigmatic ‘Flying Potato,’ Neither Plant Nor Animal, That Caused the Bay’s Biggest Harmful Algal Bloom in History
Heterosigma akashiwo can photosynthesize like a plant and wiggle like an animal, and it's here to stay — but it's still something of an enigma.
Largest Tidal Restoration Project in California Will Make Way for Wildlife & Mitigate Floods
Two landscapes stand divided by the hundred-year-old Yolo Bypass West Levee in Solano County. To the south of the levee’s U shape, canals tangle toward the sprawling Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, which teems with wildlife. North of the levee, former … Read more
The Fight Over Sustainable Transportation in Santa Cruz County
As urban wildlife stakes its claim on the green corridor running through town, the human residents of the county have spent the past two decades arguing over what to do with this 32-mile stretch of train tracks
