The harbor seals of Alaska’s Iliamna Lake, which make up one of only five freshwater seal populations in the world, have long been a subject of fascination for their separateness from the seals that swim in the nearby ocean waters. Now scientific research has confirmed something that has long been suspected: The Iliamna Lake seals, […]
The Alaska we experience today and our children will experience in the future is not the Alaska of the past. According to the 2024 Arctic Report Card, released this week by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration and co-authored by ten University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists, warming is affecting caribou populations, heat-trapping gas releases and […]
Scientists are using samples from subsistence-harvested bearded seals to establish kin relationships (parent-offspring, siblings) and to produce population estimates. In its first application in Alaska, researchers are using close-kin mark-recapture methods to estimate the size of the bearded seal population. Close-kin mark recapture methods were developed by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Marine […]
(Anchorage, AK) – The State of Alaska filed a complaint Wednesday against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) asking a U.S. District Court to vacate the critical habitat designations for ringed and bearded seals. The area designated for the two seal species is much larger than the state of Texas and includes approximately 324,105 square miles […]