In Annapolis, the fourth of 12 hearings sponsored by Maryland Department of Natural Resources examining the problem of the Bay’s declining menhaden population comes Wed., June 29 to the Annapolis Radisson at 210 Holiday Court: 410-260-8281.

Meanwhile, DNR reports that hunters bagged a record 3,136 wild turkeys this spring. Anne Arundel’s reported killing of 70 gobblers was the second highest on record. But turkeys in Calvert County can thank sprawl for a precipitous dip: 53 this year, about half the number taken six years ago …

In Virginia, they’re shooting another kind of bird: seagulls. Citing dangers to motorists, U.S. Agriculture Department wildlife agents firing pellet guns at night on the south island of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel killed some 1,300 laughing gulls, herring gulls and black-backed gulls this month …

In Washington, the Navy was cited this week by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for violating safety laws by exposing workers to dangerous chemicals. The OSHA action could lead to new safety rules and more testing of people on ships carrying the MK41 missile launcher …

On the Eastern Shore, the town of Centreville intends to excavate soils near an old dump even though Maryland state officials say that traces of an insecticide discovered there pose no health risks. Maryland’s Department of the Environment made that assessment after removing deteriorating drums that contained toxaphene, used to kill crop pests and even dumped in the water to kill unwanted fish until it was banned in 1990 because of its toxicity …

Also on the Shore in Cambridge, sturgeon find sanctuary at the University of Maryland’s Horn Point Laboratory, where scientists raised 102 of the overfished Bay native — some more than eight feet long — in hopes of increasing populations in the Chesapeake. Last month, 10 sturgeons went under the knife for a minor operation to determine sex and sexual maturity, which can take 10 to 20 years. Scientists found two immature females, so they’ll have to wait at least five years for their breeding program to get going …

Our Creature Feature comes from Cambodia, where if you’re a fisherman, you’d better have a stout pole and some very heavy line if you want to land a Mekong giant catfish. That’s because these whiskered bottom-dwellers, known as the king of fish, can grow to 10 feet long and weigh more than 600 pounds.

Trouble is, the Mekong giants have grown exceedingly rare from overfishing and dam building. That’s why last week, the World Wildlife Fund oversaw the release of four pond-raised catfish — relatively tiny at 110 pounds each. They will be tagged, of course, to warn fishermen to let them live and reproduce in hopes of replenishing the kingdom of these regal giants.