Amid the poor real estate market, five Bay Area land trusts are seizing a rare opportunity to preserve open space in Silicon Valley by investing $15 million to preserve 10,000 acres over the coming three years. Donors include the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The coalition calls...
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Commercial and sport fishermen are happy to report that for the first time in three years they will likely be granted a full salmon fishing season along the California coast. The Pacific Fishery Management Council has concluded that the uptick in the salmon population means it is safe to take fish over two feet...
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In other census news, Stanford University and U.C. Davis scientists counted the number of great white sharks between Monterey Bay, Bodega Bay and the Farallon Islands in a ground breaking study whose results are published in journal Biology Letters. They during six months of the year. That’s a low number compared to other top...
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The Bay Area is a leader in sustainable food. Our chefs get it and customers demand the best in organic, locally sourced products. But seafood is a different matter. Many restaurants continue to put red-listed fish on the menu, a factor of feeding demand and confusion in the supply chain. A customer has to...
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Hundreds of dog owners protested outside at San Francisco’s Fort Mason against plans to restrict and ban pooches from national park land in the city. Under the Golden Gate National Recreation Area proposal dogs would be kicked out of some of the most beloved dog walking spots in the region, including Muir Beach, parts...
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Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary are investigating how a shipping container that fell to the bottom of the sea outside of Monterey Bay in 2004 is impacting the environment. The scientists are using a remote controlled submersible, called Doc Ricketts, to collect soil samples...
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The Bay Area Chinese community is debating the recently proposed state ban on the possession or sale of shark fins, which, as the name implies, are essential to the culturally important shark fin soup. In many instances the debate falls along generational lines. Younger people feel the dwindling number of sharks should be protected,...
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Is ocean-water desalination a good way to solve California’s impending water crisis? Conservationists are pushing back on the idea, saying that technology is harmful to the environment because it can entrap wildlife and create byproducts heavily concentrated with salt and chemicals that would be dumped back into the ocean. Desalination also uses a lot...
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Just as many Central Valley fruit trees began to bloom, temperatures dropped last week, potentially harming many fruit and nut trees at a particularly vulnerable time. In particular stone fruit, such as peaches, apricots, and plums are susceptible to frost. But farmers won’t know the extent of the damage until harvest time. Buyers will...
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If the current rate of extinction continues, Earth will lose some 75 percent of its species in three centuries, according to a new study by U.C. Berkeley scientists published in the journal Nature this week. Mass extinctions, such as the one predicted, have only occurred five times in the Earth’s history. The dinosaur die-off...
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