Measles, also known as the “Great Sickness” among the Native villages, broke out in Alaska in 1900 and tore through isolated Yup’ik, Iñupiat, and Iñupiaq communities that had little to no prior biological exposure, killing one-quarter to one-half of their populations as it moved through the towns. On November 7th 1913, news was transmitted to […]
(Juneau, AK) — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has published preliminary harvest and value figures for the 2026 Alaska Commercial Salmon Fishery. (PDF 160 kB) A total of 99 million salmon were harvested in the 2026 season, a 49% decrease from the 2025 total harvest of 195 million salmon. The 2026 commercial […]
Jutting out into the Gulf of Alaska, Kayak Island collects a lot of seaborne trash. But an organization called the Ocean Plastics Recovery Project (OPR) is working to make the remote island a stopover for marine debris, not its final destination. OPR removed 116,330 pounds of debris from Kayak Island in 2024 and an estimated […]
Antarctic blue whales appear to be creeping back from the brink of extinction after 50 years of protection. A new study estimates the total population at 4,018, up from 418 after the last reported whale catch in 1973. Still, their population pales in comparison to pre-whaling levels, when hundreds of thousands of blue whales swam […]