Over the next few months, NOAA Fisheries researcher Jessica Crance will be part of an international team of scientists studying whales in the Bering Sea. Jessica will be listening for whales and North Pacific right whales in particular. She is hoping to locate one of the 30 or so remaining North Pacific right whales known […]
Seattle — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently reached an agreement with Stepping Stone Builders, Inc., to close an illegal motor vehicle waste disposal well in Fairbanks, Alaska. EPA banned motor vehicle waste disposal wells in 2000 and required all existing wells in Alaska closed by 2005 to protect underground sources of drinking water. During a […]
A study led by the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Wyoming found that increased westward ice drift in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas requires polar bears to expend more energy walking eastward on a faster moving “treadmill” of sea ice. These findings represent the first assessment of the consequences of changing drift rates […]
Commercial harvests of wild Alaska salmon rose to nearly 133 million fish through August 8, including upwards of 50 million sockeyes, while a weak catch of humpies in Southeast Alaska left the pink salmon preliminary harvest at about 62 million fish. The commercial harvest of pink salmon in the Sitka area was in full swing, […]