An international team of scientists who searched out specimens from museums and remote Arctic islands has identified a rare new species of beaked whale that ranges from northern Japan across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Japanese whalers call the enigmatic black whales “karasu,” the Japanese word for raven. The new species is darker […]
Seward, Alaska – The Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) announced the birth of a Steller sea lion pup to parents Eden and Pilot. Born July 1, the female pup weighed in at approximately 41 pounds (18.5 kg) and is the third Steller sea lion pup ever born at the Center, and the third born in a […]
The hotline rings. A whale is in danger. Fishermen report the location of a humpback tangled in tightly twisted fishing lines. An entanglement response team speeds to the coordinates to evaluate the situation. They must make a critical decision—act quickly to remove as much fishing gear as possible, or monitor closely and allow the whale […]
This summer, with sea ice across the Arctic Ocean shrinking to below-average levels, a NASA airborne survey of polar ice just completed its first flights. Its target: aquamarine pools of melt water on the ice surface that may be accelerating the overall sea ice retreat. NASA’s Operation IceBridge completed the first research flight of its […]