LIVE OAK — Once asserting that it did not need new permission to keep the small “Privates” beach locked and privately accessible, the Opal Cliffs Recreation District agreed this week to maintain free daily coastal access, with a scaled back security gate in place by summer.

As holiday lights begin to brighten local neighborhoods, members of Monterey County’s $2.85-billion hospitality industry are wrapping up a year spent supporting the community they call home.

OCEANSIDE — As the city continues to mull over how it will regulate short-term vacation rentals moving forward, The Coast News decided to take a look at how various people are doing business within that realm and how proposed regulations might affect them.

Coastal erosion and more intense winter storms may require policymakers to take another look at how they plan for future development. A new Oregon State University study, based in Tillamook County, examined how beach access and property would be impacted by sea level rise and coastal erosion if planning policies stayed the same.

Up and down the California coast, aging power plants are being replaced by sleeker, more efficient and more environmentally sensitive units — or are being shut down altogether.

Killer whales are diving to record depths to pinch expensive catch from commercial fishing lines, expanding their role as an apex predator to the very depths of the ocean, Deakin researchers have found.

At the confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers, a winter of heavy rains could inundate about 1,200 acres of riverside woodland for the first time in 60 years. That’s by design: Here, a few miles west of Modesto, work crews removed or broke several miles of levee last spring and replanted the land with tens of thousands of native sapling trees and shrubs.

Channel Islands and Ventura harbors and the Port of Hueneme are set to receive $14.8 million in federal funding.

The damage caused Friday, Nov. 30 was the worst yet in the area plagued by battering seas. Earlier this summer, fire rings that have been used for sunset bonfire rituals for decades crumbled after being battered by storms.

A hamlet study backs a recommendation to enact a "strategic retreat" of downtown businesses inland to combat the threat, but East Hampton Town is mulling a $15M-$17M beach restoration project.

As one of the first swells of the winter season appeared along the Southern California coast, surfers hit the water before the expected storm and rain rolled in. The waves were building through Wednesday morning, and were expected to be 4 to 6 feet high by the afternoon.

Ocean Shores, like most of Washington state’s coast, will be prone to a tsunami when an earthquake strikes off the Strait of Juan de Fuca – or even a distant tsunami like Japan or Alaska. But getting to high ground is going to take a hefty walk for many residents. And, for a city that boasts a lot of retired residents, the concern is real.

Hourglass Project targets good paying jobs

Seaside Signal - Authors of a new county housing study came to Seaside to unveil results from the report. “This process is not over,” announced project manager Brendan Buckley of Johnson Economics, a co-author of the study. Buckley and Jamin Kimmell of Angelo Planning Group presented two hours of numbers confirming what many in the audience already knew: there’s not enough workforce housing and for too many, housing is completely out of reach.

MOSS LANDING — Bright morning sun filters through low hanging fog, illuminating the sparkling slough and the white feathers on a regal egret in the distance. Commuters creep by on Highway 1, between Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing Harbor. Mark Silberstein, director of the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, says the last time he stood at this same viewpoint he could see a whale breach.

A lab at Oregon State University’s marine science center in Newport is studying whether society and the marine environment are ready for sea otter reintroduction.

For 24 of the past 26 years, Eric Emanuel and his family enjoyed quiet living on Monterey Avenue, a Pacific Grove street lined with quaint homes built in the 1920s. Then two years ago, the duplex two doors down from him was sold and the new owners obtained two short-term rental licenses from the city, one for up to seven occupants and another for up to five. The quiet was shattered by the comings and goings of vacationers.

The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced that it will share information on current planning activities for possible offshore wind development along the California coast during a public information meeting on December 13, 2018, in San Luis Obispo, California.

For decades, one family fought to keep Malibu to themselves—but its natural beauty proved irresistible

Solana Beach City Council unanimously approves a new public recreation fee – which is charged to the bluff-top homeowners to compensate for the amount of beach lost through the construction of seawalls.

Volunteers with the Tolowa Dunes Stewards will begin working under a grant this month that will allow the nonprofit to incorporate heavy equipment and paid crews in its ongoing efforts to remove European beachgrass from the dunes.

HOW THE STATE LAW PROVIDING PUBLIC ACCESS TO ALL CALIFORNIA BEACHES MAY HAVE BEEN IN JEOPARDY

SUISUN CITY — The Suisun City Council on Tuesday awarded The Dutra Group a contract to dredge the Suisun City Marina and Whispering Bay – after a year’s delay.

Conservation advocates have long touted the need to preserve Sonoma County’s bucolic landscape, but a report released last week for first time assigned a dollar value to those open spaces and their natural resources.

Scripps Oceanography-led study finds even most sustainable fishing not enough to support livelihoods in Gulf of California

Both sides in the salmon farming debate recognize that there are gaps in research, studies and investigations but they disagree on what to do about it.

The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will share information on current planning activities for possible offshore wind development along the California coast during a public information meeting on Dec. 13 in San Luis Obispo, California.

Coastal officials knew decades ago it would take money to open Hollister Ranch to the public.

A.P. Moller - Maersk expects tariffs to take a bite out of the ocean shipping industry in 2019, according to executives on a recent earnings call.

Inclusion of several Point Reyes National Seashore ranches on the National Register of Historic Places will play a role in the ongoing review of the future of these ranches in the park, according to park officials.

The first time I drove to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, I was horrified to see large cattle ranching operations on National Park Service lands. The adverse impacts of ranching on soils, water quality, vegetation, wildlife and visitor experience were undeniable: piles of manure, muddy trails, accelerated erosion, weed-infested pastures and gigantic heaps of rotting vegetation called silage (pasture plants are mowed and then fermented to feed livestock when there is no grass available). During the four years I worked at Point Reyes, I never drove past the ranches without shaking my head.

Located in the center of the Pacific Ocean 124 miles from land, the Mariana Trench is the deepest natural point on Earth. The closest thing to the “middle of nowhere,” it takes days to get there and days to get back. For decades the trench has been shrouded in mystery with large portions of it unexplored.

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on Monday awarded more than $3 million to support four projects that will help improve water quality in and around Long Beach as part of the Port Community Grants Program.

Actor Liam Hemsworth shared a poignant photo Tuesday showing the Malibu home he shared with singer Miley Cyrus reduced to ashes. “It’s been a heartbreaking few days. This is what’s left of my house. Love,” he wrote in the caption.

Aquarium announces plans for new sea otter facility and research group convenes in Newport to talk of future sea otter reintroduction in Oregon.

San Diego researchers are hoping a sophisticated set of experiments will give them a better understanding of how the ocean helps modulate the planet’s climate. Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientists just landed a second multimillion-dollar, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation so they can get a better understanding of the ocean’s effect on the atmosphere.

A federal judge has issued an order declaring the federal government violated environmental protection laws when it approved permits for fracking and acidizing (otherwise referred to as well stimulation treatments, or WSTs) from platforms offshore California.

Friends of the Earth has delivered more than 38,500 comments opposing a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plan to increase aquaculture production in the USA.

As of today, the fast-moving Woolsey Fire that continues to blaze through Malibu has burned 83,000 acres and destroyed 177 structures. There are two confirmed deaths and nearly 250,000 people displaced, the LA Times reported. The Woolsey fire is currently 10% contained and, unfortunately, more Santa Ana winds are forecasted to blow throughout today, and into Monday, as firefighters battle for the fourth straight day.

Homeowners at the inlet to the Buena Vista Lagoon are fighting a plan to permanently open the lagoon to the sea.

Of the more than 5,000 votes counted as of early Wednesday morning, 58 percent had voted yes on Measure M.

Caitlin Simmers, 12, of Oceanside, California, surfing in the Aloha Cup at the World Surfing Games in September. She has been named to USA Surfing's 12-member World Junior Surfing Champion team.

"There are lots of other beach areas where surfing hasn’t taken off as much as it did in Southern California,” says historian Peter Neushul. “Aerospace is integral to all of that. Where you're living. Your access to the beach. The technology you take to the beach. Everything.”

Mounting public outrage has fueled new efforts by state officials to open a coveted stretch of California coastline in Santa Barbara County.