With 23 days left to pass interim budget cuts here in California and a solid wall of meetings next week, I'm short on time to sit calmly and digest, say, the latest issue of Canadian Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences. I've got my hands full with the reading for my stint at the biennial Western Groundfish Forum down in Santa Cruz, where I'm on Tuesday's panel discussing Alan Longhurst's wonderful essay "The Sustainability Myth." So, I'm afraid today all I can manage blog-wise is a review of some of the high points in ocean news. Or low points, as it were.

• Witnesses report Japan has taken at least five whales after resuming its whaling operations in the Southern Ocean. Australia is chagrined. Sea Shepherd turned back to refuel and resupply, but vowed to continue its fight against the whaling ships.

• The last reasonably healthy salmon run in California is in deep, deep trouble. When the federal managers at the Pacific Council say fall chinook numbers are low, you know things are bad. Note that this graph from the Sacramento Bee includes hatchery fish.

• In a story to warm every marine biologist's heart, Dr. Nikki King discovered six previously unknown fish species in the Indian Ocean, naming an eelpout after her fiance.

• Move over tiny tennis avatars, now you can pet devil rays with your Wii thanks to Endless Ocean. This review says creatures appear based on time of day and season, so one can hope it's a realistic introduction to underwater wildlife. Perhaps you even get nasty wounds from swimming into coral.