CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / CALABASAS

For the fourth time, the city of Malibu has helped secure a federal grant for the California Wildlife Center in Calabasas. The money -- $80,520 -- will aid the facility’s mission of rescuing and rehabilitating seals, sea lions and dolphins along the Malibu coastline.

The John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant is awarded annually by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“These funds will significantly help us continue our efforts in improving rescue programs, upgrading the center’s equipment and promoting protection of wildlife,” said Cynthia Reyes, the center’s director of marine mammal response.

John H. Prescott, who died in 1998 of cancer at age 63, was a conservationist, marine biologist, diver, congressional advisor and whale expert. Early in his career, he studied how dolphins navigate and described how they send out high-frequency sonic pulses and then focus the returning signals inside a football-shaped region of their foreheads.

-- Martha Groves