• the U.S. Geological Survey announced that the polar bear population could plummet to one-third of its current level by mid-century because Arctic ice is receding faster than predicted …
• a new 350-foot super-ferry designed to go 40 mph between Hawaiian islands concerned scientists, who thought it would collide with whales and dolphins despite new cetacean-avoiding technology …
• new DNA studies suggested that the historic population levels of Pacific gray whales far exceeded the 22,000 estimated, with researchers putting the number closer to 100,000 …
• a six-week survey of the Yangtze River failed to turn up a single baiji, one of few dolphins species to adapt to a freshwater habitat. A survey in the 1990s turned up 13 of the dolphins …
• an Alaskan man taped himself provoking a monk seal and her pup while vacationing in Hawaii. After he posted the video to MySpace, the man found himself under federal investigation and could receive a $25,000 fine …
• a lake in Alaska boiled violently with methane …
• fishermen in Maine reported seeing more herring after a trawler ban went into effect …
• Arctic ice cover was at an all-time record low, an “exclamation point,” said one scientist …
• elevated levels of PCBs in the blubber of whales and seals led Inuit women to give birth to twice as many girls as boys …
• five men were arrested for smuggling endangered animal hides across the U.S.-Mexico border. Investigators say the men smuggled about 700 tanned sea turtle, caiman, and python hides …
• the governor of a Chinese province agreed to remove whale shark from menus at the behest of the Australian government …
• model Naomi Campbell and her ex-boyfriend planned to open a five-star hotel on an Indian beach, despite its status as a nesting sea turtle sanctuary. “The lights would confuse the turtles and send them heading off in the wrong direction,” said a conservationist …
• members of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum agreed to a non-binding initiative that the world needed to “slow, stop, then reverse” global warming …
• India sought to become “a world leader” in offshore caged fishing in the next ten years …
• and Japanese researchers succeeded in getting salmon to give birth to baby trout in a lab. The ultimate goal is get mackerel to birth baby bluefin tuna, a favorite for sushi.
