The start of the recreational Dungeness crab season in California marks one of the busiest sport fishing days of the year in Bodega Bay, where campgrounds are full and people from all over California jostle for position at boat launches. “People get crab fever,” said...

Paddling from Ocean Cove on the Sonoma Coast north of Jenner, the kayak pulled a lure through the murky green water in hopes a Chinook salmon running to its natal stream would first latch onto the steel morsel. Out of the cove, about a mile to the northwest, the...

As acrid smoke billowed toward her Sonoma home this week, Annabelle Davis scooped up her beloved Labrador, “Shy,” and a few other belongings. But instead of fleeing to an emergency shelter, she sought refuge at a sparkling, quiet beach tucked away in a county park...