ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Arctic Ocean sea ice has melted to the second lowest minimum since satellite observations began, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Sea ice melt recorded on Monday exceeded the low recorded in 2005, which had held second place.

With several weeks left in the melt season, ice in summer 2008 has a chance to diminish below the record low set last year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Environmental groups said the ice melt was another alarm bell warning of global warming.

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Psst. Hey buddy, wanna buy 6 million carp?

You'd be doing Utah a big favor. Ditto for a rare, funny-looking fish called the June sucker that's trying to mount a comeback in the state's largest natural freshwater lake.

When carp feed along the lake bottom, they rip out the weeds, which provide important hiding places for young June suckers. Without them, the suckers are easy pickings for hungry predators such as bass and walleye.

BEIJING -- Dean Brenner knows the reaction from some quarters of the U.S. sailing community.

"We've gotten some e-mails and seen stuff on web sites," the chairman of the U.S. Olympic Sailing Program said Saturday. "A lot of people are really anxious, saying the U.S. team failed."

NEW YORK (AP) -- Lawyers say the widow of a man killed in the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash has settled a wrongful death claim against New York City for $8.7 million.

The lawyers made the announcement on behalf of Kathy Healy and her four children.

Healy's husband, John, was killed in 2003 when the ferry crashed into a dock at full speed.

A trial on Kathy Healy's lawsuit had been scheduled to start Monday in federal court.

The city's corporation counsel did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Large areas of the Bering Sea off Alaska's coast will soon be off-limits to bottom trawling, a practice involving fishing vessels that drag huge, weighted nets across the ocean floor.

Come Monday, nearly 180,000 square miles of the Bering Sea will be closed to bottom trawling, bringing the total protected space in the Pacific Ocean to 830,000 square miles -- an area more than five times the size of California. Other newly-restricted areas are off Washington, Oregon and California.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush next week will seek formal comment from his Cabinet agencies on a plan that could make three of the world's most remote and pristine island chains off limits to commercial fishing and mineral exploration.

The action, which could be completed before Bush leaves office, would rank as one of the largest marine conservation efforts in history.