Oceans & Beaches

More than two years after the 2015-16 Dungeness and rock crab seasons in California was marred by toxic algae blooms, the federal government this week has allocated $25.8M in disaster funds to relieve fishermen and businesses affected by the closure. The Yurok Tribe was also allocated nearly $4M in disaster relief for its 2016 commercial salmon season, which was closed due to low numbers of returning spawners.

Amid accelerating sea level rise from climate change, Marin County has the highest number of households in California vulnerable to coastal flooding, according to a report released Monday. In the worst case scenario, there are a possible 4,377 Marin homes at risk of being inundated with chronic flooding by 2045, the Union of Concerned Scientists reported.

My plan was to kayak from Gaviota State Park to Hollister Ranch. Beautiful coast, lovely time of year. What could go wrong? For me, and for many others, this is the only way to get to one of California’s most off-limits beaches under a tentative agreement in a long, nasty feud that pits a small group of celebrity and wealthy land owners against all the rest of us.

Three palm trees, part of a remaining cluster planted decades ago by locals at Doheny State Beach, have been knocked down as massive king tides pummeled the beach in recent days. Park officials say they expect to lose at least three more palms by the end of the week as ‘king tides’ — large fluctuations from low to high tides — continue.

A package of six state bills aimed at reducing plastic and cigarette-butt litter — with an emphasis on trash that ends up in the ocean — has met with a mixed fate, with half advancing and half dying in their legislative chamber of origin.

Helen Fricker is worried. She says cities throughout the world, including San Diego, could be affected by the climate change that’s unfolding in the Antarctica.

In the ocean, sandwiched between sun-filled shallows and ever-darker depths, is a strange place where the noon sun shines only as bright as twilight. Some 200 to 500 feet below the surface is the mesophotic zone, where ancient reefs once drowned, leaving behind empty bodies now inhabited by new corals and colorful mystery fish.