New economic developments in the Arctic, such as trans-Arctic shipping and oil exploitation, will bring along unprecedented risks of marine oil spills. The world is therefore calling for a thorough understanding of the resilience and “self-cleaning” capacity of Arctic ecosystems to recover from oil spills. Although numerous efforts are put into cleaning up large oil […]
As the largest vessel in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet cruises on her route between Bellingham, Washington, and Skagway, Alaska – scientists aboard the M/V Columbia are tracking changes in ocean water that may well impact the fishing future of the Pacific Northwest. “The project wasn’t by any means a new idea,” says Wiley Evans of […]
Marine safety is never far from coastal Alaskans’ thoughts, where commercial fishing and other marine trades are their livelihood. This holds true in Cordova, a community of 2,200 on Prince William Sound. Every February Cordovans enjoy displaying and testing their cold water safety skills during the Iceworm Survival Suit Races by donning survival suits, swimming […]
“The status of Pacific cod is probably the biggest fishery issue facing Kodiak right now, with the quota cut 80 percent for 2018,” said Mike Litzow, a University of Alaska Fairbanks associate professor at the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center. Pacific cod stocks have collapsed, possibly because recruitment (production of young fish to enter the […]