While the Bay Area struggles at keeping birds oil-free and alive, fisherman Hai Nguyen, 24, of Garden Grove tries to murder marine mammals. While fishing off the end of a Newport Beach pier, Nguyen used a steak knife to stab a sea lion who innocuously swiped his bait. According to AP, "the animal was taken to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, where staff found the knife had pierced the sea lion's heart... [i]t was later euthanized." Nguyen faces up to one year in prison and a fine of $20,000for violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act. And for being a cruel dick....

So are we! Since this is the perfect time of the year to make a donation, we thought we'd help out those animal lovers among us by providing a list of local animal-related charities and nonprofits that can use a little (or alotta) support. PAWS (Pets are Wonderful Support) - Donate or volunteer for this fabulous organization which helps low-income persons with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses keep and take care of their companion animals. Rocket......

Bay Area polluters (that's all of us, kids) are responsible for contaminating the Bay with such nasty toxic materials as sewage, flame retardants, and Teflon. Mother seals who eat contaminated fish, pass the chemicals through placenta, and then through milk to those adorable little seal pups we all love so much. Harbor seals near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge are now being studied to determine the effects of such exposure. Researchers hope that this new......

Whales are fascinating creatures, so: alas. This weekend a baby humpback whale washed up on the shore in Pacifica. The Marine Mammal Center gave word of the decomposed 27-foot female body, and said "experts" will test the whale's flesh to find out the cause of her death. Earlier this year, blue whales (the largest of us all) washed up on the shores of Southern California, but the Center says that this humpback discovery/death is......

A 12-year-old boy in the Bayview's getting grounded for a long time, after stealing the keys to the family van and practicing for that learners' permit three years early. The boy hit three parked cars (and totaled one) before jumping out of the destroyed van and trying to make a break for it, at which point the cops swooped in and returned him to his parents. In another case of someone making a break for it, a seal pup they're calling "New Year" was found wandering on Hyde Street by Fisherman's Wharf -- again. Animal technicians at the Marine Mammal Center had previously found New Year doing some window-shopping on the wharf on Jan. 1 (thus the name) and had returned her to the bay near Pier 39 at that time. Maybe New Year just wants some of that In and Out. And your final person-on-the-loose story, a woman is recovering after losing control of her Lexus and ramming it into the Santa Clara Kaiser Permanente's ER. At least they didn't have to take her very far for treatment, right? The ER was closed for three hours but has since reopened. The woman was driving to the hospital to pick up her husband....

A confused sea lion was found wandering on the Dumbarton Bridge at 2 a.m. Tuesday morning. (SFist sometimes feels like that when trying to navigate the odd roads of Palo Alto too). The sea lion was in the slow lane....