A severe ecological decline in the Delta worsened substantially in 2007 despite major efforts to stop it. The results of a key survey, made available Wednesday, offer no hope of relief anytime soon. The numbers are from a four-month fall survey used to gauge the overall health of the Delta's open-water fisheries. This same annual survey was used in 2005 t o show that after decades of gradual decline, the Delta's open-water, or pelagic, species dropped sharply beginning about 2001. CC Times 1/10/08
a team of government biologists identified a combination of factors that may have converged to imperil the fish, including excessive water diversions from the Delta, poor water quality caused by urban and farm runoff, and competition for food from invasive species.Sacramento Bee
A federal judge ordered the Navy last week to protect whales and other marine mammals off California's coast from harmful blasts caused by mid-frequency sonar training, a practice that also occurs off Northeast Florida's coast. The sonar generates loud underwater sounds across thousands of square miles of ocean, which can harm marine mammals' hearing, disrupt their eating and mating habits, strand groups of whales and kill marine life, including five endangered species, according to studies noted in the court order. Jacksonville Shorelines 1/08/08
NPR has a segment posted on the changing shape of the San Joaquin Delta. Damaged and crumbling levies aggravate an already bad situation with rising sea levels. 1/08/08
A federal appeals court gave San Francisco the green light Wednesday to require employers to help pay for health care for uninsured workers and residents, and it signaled that it is likely to uphold the city's groundbreaking universal coverage law. A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed San Francisco to enforce its law and extend coverage to all uninsured adults while the city appeals a federal judge's decision striking down a key funding provision. SF Chronicle 1/10/08
A new center in Monterey will provide a forum where international marine scholars can develop solutions to critical threats to the oceans, Called the Center for Ocean Solutions, it will be run by Stanford University, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and their nearby research institutions. SF Chronicle 1/10/08
Muir Woods' listing in the National Register, which is administered by the National Park Service, on Wednesday was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the day President Theodore Roosevelt declared it the nation's 10th national monument. The famous redwood grove was listed not only because of the ancient trees but because of its importance as the birthplace of the modern conservation movement. SF Chronicle 1/10/08
The simultaneous drop in several Delta species suggests deeper ecological problems are at work, such as poor water quality or a rupture in the food chain.
About 1,500 farmers and beekeepers from around the nation are in Sacramento this week for the first National Beekeeping Conference. The priority of almost everyone at the conference is hearing scientists discuss the latest clues in the CCD mystery that has resulted in a loss of 50 percent to 90 percent of beehives in the United States. Sacramento Bee 1/10/08
Primafuel, a biofuel production plant based in Long Beach, Calif., recently was awarded the largest grant in history from the California Air Resources Board for biodiesel production, which the company will use to build Sacramento’s first biofuel production plant. News Review 1/10/08
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