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 […]
Natural resource managers in British Columbia discovered several adult male and female European green crabs on Haida Gwaii this past July. Alarm bells immediately went off for biologists in Alaska. The archipelago of Haida Gwaii, off the coast of Prince Rupert in British Columbia, is very close to Alaska. The July discovery is the closest confirmed finding […]
Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation introduced by Congressmen Don Young (R-AK) and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) that will help local and state governments protect the country’s 95,000 miles of shoreline. The Digital Coast Act will now be considered by the U.S. Senate, which already passed the legislation before technical changes were made. The […]
A new Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System, also known as PORTSⓇ, aims to improve maritime safety and efficiency off Valdez, Alaska. NOAA and the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Counciloffsite link partnered to establish the third new PORTS system this year, the 36th in the nationwide network. The Valdez PORTS will consist of an existing NOAA National Water […]
In May of 2020, local geologists identified a steep, unstable slope that has the potential to become a tsunami-generating landslide in Barry Arm, a glacial fjord 60 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska. With documented cases of tsunami-generating landslides in Alaska including Lituya Bay in 1958 and Taan Fjord in 2015, this new hazard immediately caught the attention of […]
Research aims for baseline information on whale behavior and biology in absence of vessels. This is a collaborative effort with the University of Alaska Southeast, University of Alaska Fairbanks, NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional Office and Alaska Fisheries Science Center/Auke Bay Laboratories and the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. It’s an unusual year out on […]
KETCHIKAN – On Saturday, Sen. Bert Stedman toured a new dock that is being built for the NOAA Ship Fairweather with Sen. Dan Sullivan, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Chief of Staff Michael Walsh Jr., and Borough Mayor Rodney Dial. They all have been working diligently to ensure that the vessel is homeported at a new dock in Ketchikan. This will bring jobs and economic activity to the community after […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In today’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) slammed the Trump administration for ignoring more than a decade of scientific analysis on the devastating impacts the proposed Pebble Mine will have on Alaska’s Bristol Bay salmon fishery. Cantwell has been vocal about the disaster that the Pebble Mine would bring […]