Environment : Notes about your surroundings.

FISH HAVEN: Orange County’s wetlands areas--Anaheim Bay, Bolsa Chica and Upper Newport Bay--are most often thought of in terms of their importance to birds, but they are also used extensively by fish. Dick Nitsos, a marine biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game, said the quiet waters of these estuaries are believed to provide a vital nursery for the young of many fish species. Also, the productive marsh ecosystem provides nutrients that are carried to sea, helping to support offshore marine life.

Among the fish that have been found in local estuaries are such commercially important species as halibut and deep-body anchovies. The list also includes topsmelt, California killyfish, striped mullet, various species of gobies, turbots, sand bass and surf perches, and even California corvina.

ROCK HOUNDS: The Orange Coast Mineral and Lapidary Society will have its 41st annual gem and mineral show next weekend at the Electrical Workers Hall, 3222 West 1st St. in Santa Ana. Hours are Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; admission and parking are free.

The club, one of several such organizations in Orange County, holds monthly collecting trips, mainly to desert collecting sites. Member Cleo Wordman says Orange County once had a number of good fossil collecting areas, but most have been either picked clean, developed or are now open only to scientists because of their scientific importance.