NOAA’s newest research ship, the Reuben Lasker, departs San Diego this week on its first scientific mission that includes surveying gray whales along the West Coast. The survey will also search the Gulf of Alaska for right whales, among the most rare and endangered whales on Earth. The expedition is a collaboration between the Southwest […]
Fisheries are an economic and employment engine in Alaska, with the commercial and recreational sectors generating $4.8 billion in sales impacts and 61,000 jobs in 2012. However, invasive species, or species that are introduced to a new area where they have the potential to cause harm, could significantly affect the ecosystems that make Alaska so […]
JUNEAU, ALASKA – Last week’s ill-conceived decision by the British Columbia government to issue a final operating permit for Red Chris mine disregards concerns from Alaskans whose clean water, fisheries, tourism, jobs, and traditional ways of life are threatened. Red Chris is owned by Imperial Metals, the same company responsible for the Mount Polley mine […]
Shelikof Strait, in the Gulf of Alaska, is an important spawning area for walleye pollock, the target of the largest—and one of the most valuable—fisheries in the nation. This year, a team of NOAA Fisheries scientists went there to turn their usual view of the fishery upside-down. Scientists have been conducting fish surveys in the […]