Raw sewage and solid waste flow into the bay from surrounding cities, home to more than 8 million people. Cargo ships and oil platforms chug in and out of commercial ports, while dozens of abandoned vessels lie rotting in the water. But at the head of the bay, between the cities of Itaborai and Mage, the environment feels different. The air is purer, the waters are empty but for small fishing canoes, and flocks of birds soar overhead.
The government has broken its promise to protect nature by weakening planning rules for housing developers, groups have said. While developers once had to create biodiversity net gain (BNG), meaning creating 10% more space for nature on site than there was before the building took place, housing minister Matthew Pennycook announced exemptions to this rule on Tuesday.
The excitement started with a flash of silver followed by a hefty dose of disbelief. A team of conservationists and biologists from The Wildlands Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the 5,600-acre Jenner Headlands Preserve on the Sonoma Coast, couldn't believe what they were seeing: the telltale color and shape of juvenile coho salmon, darting back and forth in the clear current of the East Branch Russian Gulch.
I used to cut trees and never took the titis into account, says Centena, calling the cotton-tops by their local name. I ignored them. I didn't know that they were in danger of extinction, I only knew I had to feed my family. But now we have become friends. Weighing barely a pound (half a kilogram), the tiny monkeys are among the most threatened primates in the world, driven to the brink by medical experiments, rampant deforestation and the illegal pet trade.
Gary Francis had spent much of his life fishing, boating and diving in the vast blue waters of the Caribbean. When he came to New York City, he was mystified. The city is surrounded by water, but access to it was incredibly limited. Largely closed off and isolated, the city's water was unwelcoming, much of it bordered by barbed wire or "no trespassing" signs.
In March 2019, Clover Flat Land Fill spilled 40,000 gallons of leachate into nearby streams, which are tributaries of the Napa River, Haley said in a news release. Leachate is a liquid created when water runs through the waste in a landfill. Investigators looking into the spill also uncovered other alleged violations, including a road built through what had been a stream and the unauthorized removal of trees and other vegetation, according to prosecutors.
The scientist traipses to a pond wearing rubber boots but he doesn't enter the water. Instead, Brad Hollingsworth squats next to its swampy edge and retrieves a recording device the size of a deck of cards. He then opens it up and removes a tiny memory card containing 18 hours of sound. Back at his office at the San Diego Natural History Museum, the herpetologist an expert in reptiles and amphibians uses artificial intelligence to analyze the data on the card.
