We’re all familiar with La Jolla’s sea lions, harbor seals, orcas, garibaldi and seabirds. But in this series of stories called Species of the Month, the Light sheds light on other, lesser-known ...

The summaries below were drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All linked stories were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists. Unique ...

Thirty previously unknown deep-sea species — including a carnivorous “death-ball” sponge — have been confirmed in the depths of one of the most remote regions on the planet, thanks to new research ...

What happens when the ocean’s giants die? Despite their blubbery bodies, whales eventually sink to the bottom in what are called “whale falls,” becoming an essential source of food, nutrients and ...

A team of scientists in southern China recently took a trip to the seashore, but the visit wasn’t a typical beach vacation. They were searching for unfamiliar-looking sea creatures. And they found one ...

Inside deep-sea coral in the Pacific, an iridescent creature waits in ambush. Zhou Y, Zhang R, Shen C, Mao Q, Zhang M, Zhang D (2025) ZooKeys The underwater mountains of the northwest Pacific are ...