Oceans

"Selling L.A. " reality show viewers may wonder if any of the featured homes actually sell. Although perhaps not in time for the closing credits, some houses under consideration for the show do find a buyer outside the roving eye of the camera. One home that agent Rebekah Schwartz was promoting to HGTV for its 15 minutes of fame was the Marina del Rey pad that former Laker Lamar Odom rented a few years back. Listed at $1.995 million in January, it closed early this month at $1.825 million.

Known for the great variety of the roles he plays, Leonardo DiCaprio now is trying his hand at Malibu beach house landlord. He has listed this Cape Cod-inspired home for $75,000 a month for a long-term tenant or $150,000 a month for leases of less than six months. His Malibu Colony compound was recently remodeled and features a four-bedroom main house on the ocean side, a two-bedroom guest house and a detached loft with gym. There is a beach-front deck, a fire pit, gardens and lawn on the less-than-half-acre lot. DiCaprio, 37, whose blockbuster hits include "Titanic" (1997)

Rising ocean temperatures have stoked the growing fury of hurricanes, according to a study made public Thursday that intensifies a debate over the link between global warming and the ferocity of storms.

"NCIS" star Michael Weatherly has sold his house in the Hollywood Hills for $1.845 million. The redone one-story house sits behind gates and has ocean and mountain views. Features include French doors opening to the swimming pool, beamed ceilings, a fireplace, an updated kitchen with stainless-steel appliances, three en-suite bedrooms and a finished two-car garage used as a music room. There are four bedrooms, 31/2 bathrooms and 2,600 square feet of living space. A covered area outdoors is set up as a gym. Weatherly, 43, has starred as special agent Anthony DiNozzo on the highly rated crime drama, originally titled "NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service," since 2003 and appeared as the same character on "JAG.

While a friend looked on in horror, a 30-year-old woman was killed Sunday when a massive wave swept her off a rocky ledge and into the churning surf of an underwater cave at Three Arch Bay, authorities said. Powerful currents and a riptide forced Lynn Scollard of Huntington Beach under the water for more than an hour before firefighters and lifeguards were able to spot her body a short distance south of where she entered the water, Laguna Beach police said.

An oxygen-depleted "dead zone" the size of New Jersey is starving sea life off the coast of Oregon and Washington and likely will appear there each summer as a result of climate change, an Oregon State University researcher said Thursday. The huge area is one of 400 dead zones around the world, most of them caused by fertilizer and sewage dumped into the oceans in river runoff. But the dead zone off the Northwest is one of the few in the world -- and possibly the only one in North America -- that could be impossible to reverse.

Google finally put the world's oceans on the map. During a splashy presentation Monday at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the Internet giant unveiled a feature in its Google Earth program that will allow users to swim through undersea canyons as deep as the Mariana Trench and encounter creatures like a critically endangered, prehistoric fish called the coelacanth.

First "Microcosmos" examined the insect universe, then "Winged Migration" flew with birds and "Planet Earth" took us to the remotest corners of the world. So it is no shock that the visual splendors of "Oceans" are up next, reaching theaters, not by coincidence, on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. But if the existence of a documentary that records the vastness and diversity of the ocean is hardly unexpected, what French filmmakers and "Winged Migration" veterans Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzard have achieved is more surprising and more difficult than might be immediately apparent.

The Atlantic and Indian oceans do not meet at Cape Town, South Africa, as stated by Christopher Reynolds, repeating a common error ("South Africa Calmly Awaits Acceptance by U.S. Travelers," Jan. 29). Instead, they meet about 120 miles southeast of the Cape of Good Hope at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa and hence of the Old World landmass. In contrast to the spectacular False Cape and Cape of Good Hope (when not fogbound as usual), Cape Agulhas is rather flat, with many rocks extending far south into the ocean, or oceans.

I don't want to complain, but thousands of people are dumping sewage in our ocean. It hurts the Earth and kills the animals. Ninety-five percent of the water on Earth is polluted. Just 5% left is freshwater. At least we can try to save that tiny 5%. Just put the sewage somewhere else. KIRSTEN HUBBARD Oxnard Editor's note: These Letters to the Editor come from E.L.M. Street School in Oxnard. E.L.M.--Educational Learning Magnet Intersession--is a new school in the Oxnard School District that offers 10-day sessions for students who are between terms in the all-year school system.

Taking its cues from Teatro La Fenice, an opera house in Venice, this Italian Renaissance-style estate was recently doubled in size. Five courtyards bring the living space outdoors to take advantage of the ocean and coastline views. Location: 6019 Avenida Cresta, La Jolla 92037 Asking price: $14.95 million House size: Six bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, 10,000 square feet Lot size: 0.41 of an acre Features: Ornate wrought-ironwork, Venetian chandeliers and sconces, murals, lead- and stained-glass windows, home theater, wine cellar, two master bedrooms, butler's pantry.

"Selling L.A. " reality show viewers may wonder if any of the featured homes actually sell. Although perhaps not in time for the closing credits, some houses under consideration for the show do find a buyer outside the roving eye of the camera. One home that agent Rebekah Schwartz was promoting to HGTV for its 15 minutes of fame was the Marina del Rey pad that former Laker Lamar Odom rented a few years back. Listed at $1.995 million in January, it closed early this month at $1.825 million.

High on a steep, terraced mountainside in Malibu, with a spectacular view of the Pacific, perches the largest and probably the only commercial planting of loquats in the United States. A pome fruit related to apples and pears, the loquat is one of the great pleasures of spring in Southern California. It has firm but juicy flesh with the texture of cantaloupe and a sweet-tart flavor evoking cherry. The irony is that it is so well-adapted and common as a backyard tree that there's little local demand for the fruit.

Actors Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have put their Malibu beach house back on the market, chopping $3.5 million from last year to price it at $11.2 million. The Balinese-inspired home faces sand dunes and the ocean. The 4,300-square-foot house, built in 1978 and renovated in 2005, is entered through a gated courtyard. Features include a screening room, a bar, a gym, an office and a detached guest house. The master suite has floor-to-ceiling windows and a beachfront balcony for a total of four bedrooms and 41/2 bathrooms.

Laurie Tragen-Boykoff rocks on her feet, holding on to a large sign, her hands trembling. The international arrivals ramp at LAX is empty, but that only fuels her anticipation. She's waited 25 years for this. On the sign is a blown-up black-and-white photograph of a somber-faced boy. His name is Nicky Mutoka. Below, in large black letters, the Agoura Hills social worker has written: "NICKY!!! I'M LAURIE. " She lifts the sign, her face disappearing behind it. But she is smiling. In 1987, she began what she saw as a most unlikely pen pal correspondence.

This Pacific Palisades compound features a contemporary three-story main house, unobstructed ocean and coastline views and a guesthouse with a claim to fame. The Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen-designed Case Study No. 9 house was one of a series of inexpensive and efficient experimental homes built in the middle of the last century. Location: 205 Chautauqua, Pacific Palisades 90272 Asking price: $15.95 million Previously sold: In 2010 for $10 million House size: Five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, 9,500 square feet Lot size: 43,500 square feet Features: Gated, art gallery, two offices, library, wine cellar, gym, swimming pool, ocean views About the area: In the first quarter, 50 single-family homes sold in the 90272 ZIP Code at a median price of $1,793,000, according to DataQuick.

Wind and water--two of nature's most elemental forces--combine to produce one of Orange County's best-known attractions, the waves that reach its beaches. Three recent storms in widely separated locations have helped end a summer-long run of flat surf. Here's how, whence and why swells reach the beaches of Orange County. Storms That Send Us Swells Storms driving waves to Orange County beaches normally take place at three distant points.

The world's oceans contain many more types of microorganisms than had been thought, scientists report. The study, reported in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found more than 20,000 species in a liter of seawater. "Microbiologists have formally described 5,000 microbial species. This study shows we have barely scratched the surface," said Mitchell Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass.

Strange, jellyfish-like creatures swarming a coastal nuclear power plant: It might sound like the premise of a cult horror flick, but the invasion has prompted officials at the Diablo Canyon facility in San Luis Obispo to curtail operations for at least a few days. The plant's operator, Pacific Gas & Electric, cut power generation from one of the plant's two reactors to 25% of its capacity, spokesman Tom Cuddy said Wednesday. The other reactor was shut down this week for what PG&E described as routine refueling and maintenance, a procedure that could take about a month.

Environmental groups are accusing Six Flags Magic Mountain of polluting the Santa Clara River with huge volumes of contaminated water and allowing trash with its logos to spill into the Southern California waterway and toward the ocean. The allegations were made in a letter sent to the Valencia theme park last week by a coalition of environmental groups, whose investigators say they found alarming levels of pollutants in water sloshing out of the facility's storm water outfalls into the nearby waterway during rainstorms.