Study: Closing razor clam season on Washington coast for a year could cost $22 million. A study by NOAA and the University of Washington says a yearlong closure of recreational razor clam digging could result in as much as $22 million in lost revenue to counties on the Washington coast.

Judge: new portions of Obama Columbia salmon plan may be off-limits for his ruling. The federal judge overseeing the balancing act between salmon and Columbia Basin dams said he doesn't think he can consider new steps the Obama administration wants to take.

Tenn. supercomputer running fastest in world for climate change, renewable energy. At least for the moment, the world's fastest supercomputer is devoted to solving scientific questions that may save the planet ? climate change, renewable energy, new medicines ? rather than advances in nuclear weapons that might blow it up.

Federal government reviewing endangered species status for humpback whales. The federal government is considering taking the humpback whale off the endangered species list in response to data showing the population of the massive marine mammal has been steadily growing in recent decades.

OSLO (Reuters) - Dismayed by ice and storms, British explorer Captain James Cook had no regrets when he abandoned a voyage searching for a fabled southern continent in 1773.

Feds, environmental group settle on dates for decisions on listing ice seals as threatened. A federal agency must decide within three weeks whether spotted seals, which depend on sea ice off Alaska's coast, should be listed as a threatened or endangered species.

Experts say no tsunami expected on West Coast from 7.9 Pacific quake. Experts say a magnitude-7.9 quake in the South Pacific is not expected to produce a tsunami along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia or Alaska.

US emergency relief officials rushed Tuesday to respond to a deadly tsunami that struck remote island groups in the Pacific Ocean, including the US territory of American Samoa.

The United States scrambled to respond to a tsunami that left at least 28 people dead in the Samoa islands, deploying two disaster relief teams to American Samoa.

President Barack Obama has declared a "major disaster" in American Samoa after a tsunami killed at least 22 people in the outlying US territory spurring the deployment of federal emergency teams.

President Barack Obama has declared a "major disaster" in American Samoa after a tsunami killed at least 22 people in the outlying US territory spurring the deployment of federal emergency teams.

Type of quake, depth of ocean, location of Samoa all add up to devastating high-speed tsunami. Because of a lethal combination of geology and geography, the people of American Samoa didn't stand much of a chance.

Type of quake, depth of ocean, location of Samoa all add up to devastating high-speed tsunami. Because of a lethal combination of geology and geography, the people of American Samoa didn't stand much of a chance. Almost every condition that triggers bad tsunamis was in place this time, generating waves that raced toward the island territory at speeds approaching 530 mph, or as fast as a 747 jumbo jet. And there was almost nothing to slow the water down.

ON BOARD COAST GUARD FLIGHT ABOVE BEAUFORT SEA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Out in the Arctic Ocean, about 200 miles (322 km ) north of the nearest human settlement, the future of the world's climate is written in the patterns of ice patches on the water's surface.

TRURO - Gray heads began popping out of the sea shortly before low tide Wednesday. Soulful, steady eyes looked briefly at the handful of people armed with binoculars and cameras on the Cape Cod National Seashore, then disappeared silently beneath the waves. Suddenly, dozens of 300- to 600-pound bulbous gray seals awkwardly lumbered onto an exposed sandbar, joining others already there. Within the hour, more than 100 were lolling and playfully slapping one another with their flippers at the newest, and one of the most publicly accessible, seal resting sites on Cape Cod. Some low tides, more than 300 animals ``haul out'' here. Gray seals, once so hunted they all but disappeared from Northeast waters, are making a comeback off New England to both public delight and damnation. This summer, they were the bait blamed for luring great white sharks so close to Cape Cod's swimming beaches that some had to be closed. Fishermen complain the seals eat too many valuable fish. Meanwhile, overzealous

Across Arctic, time may run out on timeless spectacle of migrating caribou; warming blamed. Here on the endlessly rolling and tussocky terrain of northwest Canada, where man has hunted caribou since the Stone Age, the vast antlered herds are fast growing thin. And it's not just here.

Across Arctic, time may run out on timeless spectacle of migrating caribou; warming blamed. Here on the endlessly rolling and tussocky terrain of northwest Canada, where man has hunted caribou since the Stone Age, the vast antlered herds are fast growing thin. And it's not just here.

Huge dead whale found floating in Tampa Bay was killed by a ship in Gulf of Mexico. Scientists say a 41-foot-whale found floating in the Port of Tampa last weekend was killed by a ship out in the Gulf of Mexico.

Study: Endangered AK beluga whale group declining, raising concerns over survival. A government study found that a group of endangered beluga whales in Alaska is declining, raising concern that bolstered protection for the animals is not coming quickly enough.

Oregon's wild, scenic Rogue River gets even wilder with demolition of dam that hindered fish. The wild and scenic Rogue River has become even wilder with the demolition of a dam that had hindered passage of salmon and steelhead to their spawning grounds for 88 years.