A NOAA-authorized team of marine mammal biologists performed a necropsy Sunday on a dead gray whale beached in the Copper River Delta, near Cordova, Alaska. The biologists–aided by the U.S. Coast Guard–spent approximately two and a half hours on Egg Island collecting tissue samples from the 42-foot long young adult female. NOAA first received a report of […]
Marine mammal experts with NOAA Fisheries and the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network are monitoring the position of a dead gray whale in Turnagain Arm near Anchorage, Alaska, hoping for an opportunity to conduct a necropsy (animal autopsy). The latest reported location of the carcass is a couple hundred yards offshore from the Placer and Twentymile rivers. At […]
Legislation introduced by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, would put a moratorium on commercial permitting of marine finfish aquaculture facilities in the federal exclusive economic zone. H.R. 2467, the Keep Fin Fish Free Act, would prohibit the Secretaries of Interior and Commerce from authorizing such operations in the federal exclusive economic zone unless specifically authorized […]
Over the past five years, winter atmospheric conditions that influence the Bering Sea have been markedly different from previous years. Strong, warm winds out of the south—sometimes lasting more than 30 days—have forced sea ice northward. Water temperatures have been warmer than normal and NOAA scientists have observed some significant changes in marine species. They […]