Biodiversity

"The first black bear hunt in Florida in a decade will take place in December under a rule adopted Wednesday by state wildlife officials despite strong opposition to the eventual use of dogs and targeting the animals in baited locations."

"The Trump administration is on a rogue quest to mine critical minerals from the ocean floor — and recent global negotiations over the fate of deep-sea mining reveal just how alone the U.S. is on the issue."

"A customer is waiting as Patrick Gormandy steers his deep-water trawler — the Captain Sam B — back to the dock after a day of shrimping on Mobile Bay."

"Antarctica’s krill fishery has shut down months ahead of schedule after reaching its full seasonal catch-limit—a historic first. The early closure is fueling urgent calls to protect the Southern Ocean’s fragile marine ecosystems from mounting industrial fishing and climate change."

"A coalition of tribes and the Native American Rights Fund jumped Monday into the legal battle to protect the Chuckwalla National Monument in southern California that President Joe Biden created during his last month in office. Tribes led a long fight to see the monument established."

"Bald eagles must be protected to the fullest extent of the law from dangerous wind turbines, President Trump’s interior secretary declared this week. But four months ago, President Trump called for gutting the very law that applies, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, calling it a burden on oil and gas producers."

"An executive order signed by President Donald Trump late Thursday aims to give political appointees power over the billions of dollars in grants awarded by federal agencies. Scientists say it threatens to undermine the process that has helped make the U.S. the world leader in research and development."

"Biologists once thought that humans did little to affect the course of evolution in the short term. But a recent study of cod in the Baltic Sea reveals how overfishing and selective harvest of the largest fish has caused genetic changes that favor slower growth and smaller size."

"France’s highest court on Thursday blocked a key part of a contentious farming law that would have brought back a banned pesticide."

"The Fish and Wildlife Service will have to reconsider whether gray wolves in the western United States merit Endangered Species Act protections in light of Republican-backed efforts to aggressively cull the animals in the Northern Rockies, a federal judge ruled Tuesday."