LA JOLLA, California (AP) — At first glance, it looks like a branch of kelp, but then an eye moves among its leafy appendages, and ridges of tiny, translucent fins start to flutter, sending the creature gliding through the water like something from a fairy tale.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A growing number of shipping companies are slowing down as they approach San Francisco and other California ports so they are less likely to injure or kill whales.

A big rebound in the sea lion population along the West Coast in recent years has created a constant battle to wrangle the protected animals. They’re smart and fun to watch from a safe distance, but also noisy, smelly and proving to be a headache for some coastal marinas.

PARADISE, Calif. (AP) — Fears of harming an endangered frog species have forced crews to delay cleaning debris from about 800 properties in Paradise, angering some residents anxious to start rebuilding their homes.

You may go your entire life without seeing an endangered species, yet the globe’s biodiversity crisis threatens all of humanity in numerous unseen or unrecognized ways, scientists say.

People are putting nature in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with extinction looming over 1 million species of plants and animals, scientists said Monday.

PORT FOURCHON, La. (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday moved to ease safety regulations adopted after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon blowout, the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history that killed nearly a dozen people.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri wildlife officials have placed six Mexican wolf pups born in captivity near St. Louis with two packs in the wild, in a new effort to repopulate the critically endangered species.