Boulder, Colo.–Unusually high air temperatures and a warm ocean have led to a record low Arctic sea ice extent for November, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctic sea ice extent also hit a record low for the month, caused by moderately warm temperatures […]
Along Alaska’s southern coast, harbor seals use icebergs from tidewater glaciers as platforms to give birth, nurse, molt and avoid predators. As these glaciers melt and thin, some may retreat onto land and no longer calve into the ocean. Researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and the National Park Service have successfully […]
People wait years for permits to raft the Grand Canyon. Michelle Ridgway once visited a much larger canyon in Alaska, one that most people will never hear about. Zhemchug Canyon, 20 percent longer and deeper than Grand Canyon, is a t-shaped cut in the sea floor beneath the gray waters of the Bering Sea. […]
NOAA Fisheries concluded that the listing of Pacific harbor seals in Iliamna Lake, Alaska as an endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is not warranted. The seals do not constitute a species as defined by the ESA, and thus do not meet the criteria for listing under the Act. This decision […]