Mike Taras has worked for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for many years, but this is the first time he has said the words “nuisance lynx.” Taras, a wildlife education and outreach specialist, said people are seeing a lot of lynx in Alaska’s Interior. “I don’t remember people calling in telling us about […]
Alaska went big on New Year’s. First, on New Year’s Eve 2020, a superstorm spun its way through the North Pacific Ocean and into the Aleutian Islands. The twirling mass of gases surrounding Earth was more than 5,000 miles wide, its boundaries stretching from northern Japan to middle Alaska. That’s about 10 times the width […]
A bearded seal rests on ice in the Bering Sea. NOAA/Cameron NOAA Fisheries is proposing to designate critical habitat in U.S. waters off the coast of Alaska for Arctic ringed seals and the Beringia distinct population of bearded seals. Both species are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The ESA requires that NOAA […]
This may be the first time data collected using uncrewed surface vehicles were used to help produce an annual estimate of abundance for a commercial fish stock. Every other year, NOAA Fisheries conducts an acoustic-trawl survey from crewed research vessels to measure pollock abundance in Alaska’s eastern Bering Sea. As a result of COVID-19, many […]
During the darkest days of Alaska’s winter, black-capped chickadees stuff themselves with enough seeds and frozen insects to survive 18-hour nights. Where the chickadees spend those long nights was a mystery until a biologist tracked them. Susan Sharbaugh spent many winter nights trying to find out how a creature as light as a handful of […]
New research reveals significant changes to the circulation of the North Pacific and its impact on the initial migration of humans from Asia to North America. The international study, led by the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and published Dec. 9 in Science Advances, provides a new picture of the circulation and climate of the […]
On Dec. 21 at 1:02 a.m. Alaska time, this big round head of a planet will tip back, pause, then slowly nod toward the sun. That breathless moment of stillness is the northern hemisphere’s winter solstice. Solstice is a combination of a few Latin words, meaning “sun stands still.” That is somewhat true from this […]
The Seattle-based Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, the nation’s sole heavy icebreaker, is making its way north for the ship’s first winter Arctic deployment since 1982. When Polar Star’s annual resupply mission at McMurdo Station in Antarctica was cancelled due to COVID safety precautions at the station, Coast Guard leaders seized the opportunity to coordinate […]
Not long ago, John Wright of Fairbanks heard a thump against a window above his deck. He pulled on his coat and walked out to investigate. He was surprised to see a lovely pine grosbeak down on the deck. Standing above it was a northern shrike — a predatory songbird with a black eye-mask that […]