Fish

DENVER (AP) — The humpback chub, a rare fish found only in the Colorado River basin, has been brought back from the brink of extinction after decades of protection, though work must continue to ensure its survival, federal authorities said Monday in reclassifying the species from endangered to threatened status.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine's beloved puffins suffered one of their worst years for reproduction in decades this summer due to a lack of the small fish they eat.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hoping to recover a lost anchor chain, a work boat dragged a grappling hook along the seabed near an oil platform off the Southern California coast. But it hooked something else -- a pipeline carrying crude oil from the towering rig to shore.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Surfers and swimmers returned to the waves Monday at a popular Southern California beach that was shut for more than a week after an undersea pipeline leaked crude oil into the ocean.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida's wildlife agency is proposing to lift its three-decade ban on catching and killing goliath groupers, arguing that the species' numbers have rebounded.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is known for damming rivers and building levees to keep waterways at bay. But a new initiative seeks natural flood control solutions as climate change brings increasingly frequent and severe weather events that test the limits of concrete and steel.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Since a pipeline spilled crude off the California coast this weekend, only a handful of oiled birds have been recovered in what environmental advocates said could be a hopeful sign for the region's wildlife.

STEVENS VILLAGE, Alaska (AP) — In a normal year, the smokehouses and drying racks that Alaska Natives use to prepare salmon to tide them through the winter would be heavy with fish meat, the fruits of a summer spent fishing on the Yukon River like generations before them.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Death’s come knocking a last time for the splendid ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 more birds, fish and other species: The U.S. government on Wednesday declared them extinct.

COVENTRY, Conn. (AP) — Uncertainty about the species of a massive catfish that was eaten before it could be vetted by authorities in August has led Connecticut to withdraw its awarding of a new state record.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The diversity of Los Angeles is on display in the emerging race to replace Mayor Eric Garcetti and the winning candidate who emerges from the growing field of hopefuls will need to navigate rivalries and forge alliances across the city’s racial and ethnic communities.

A pack of river otters has attacked people and pets in some of the most popular outdoor areas in Anchorage, Alaska, even injuring a child.

The Associated Press with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision accompanied the conservation group Sea Shepherd this summer on an 18-day voyage to observe up close for the first time the Chinese distant water fishing fleet on the high seas off South America. China’s deployment to this area of the Pacific Ocean is no accident. Decades of overfishing have pushed its overseas fleet, the world’s largest, ever farther from home. U.S. and regional governments fear that the Chinese fleet’s push into the Americas could spur illegal fishing of endangered species and threaten even thriving ones like the Humboldt squid, the main target of the explosion in industrial fishing off South America.