A disaster declaration could make the fishery eligible for federal relief funds, although who specifically would receive money would be figured out later.
Ship Creek in Anchorage will be closed to sport fishing for two weeks to support salmon stock sustainability at a local hatchery.
Southeast’s total salmon harvest was 19 million fewer fish than last year. There was a drop in harvest for every species except chinook, which increased by a few thousand fish.
The Coast Guard reported the dead 47-foot female humpback to NOAA on Sunday evening. It had washed ashore on the south end of Kruzof Island. The whale looked healthy and its belly was full of fish — most likely herring. But they did find some evidence of blunt trauma.
A rare, emaciated fin whale was found dead near Kodiak, Alaska, with the local Sun'aq Tribe conducting a necropsy. There isn’t enough data for biologists to declare a trend yet, but these whales are being found on the heels of an unusual mortality event for gray whales in the Pacific Ocean.
Last summer’s unusually warm weather fueled an explosion in the western blackheaded budworm, leaving masses of browning trees in many areas of Southeast. The worm, which is the larval stage of the budworm moth, is known to feed on the new growth of trees, leaving them with a brownish-red appearance.
A decline in caribou abundance is causing coyotes and wolves to come closer to the community of Quinhagak. When a rabid coyote attacked a local dog, it forced the village to bring in a veterinarian from outside the village - and temporarily lift the Southwest community's travel ban.
The booming Bristol Bay salmon run has broken the record set just last year, while on the Yukon River, Chinook are too scarce to harvest.
A humpback whale found dead near Kodiak Island in Alaska undergoes the state's first whale necropsy of 2023 in an effort to determine the cause of death and understand the shrinking humpback population in the area, with initial findings suggesting the whale may have been struck by a boat.
Orthione griffenis, or O. griffenis, eventually kills its host shrimp, and soon the remaining shrimp can’t find each other to reproduce, rendering a blue mud shrimp population extinct.
Biologists say the bison population took a big hit this winter. More than a dozen were hit and killed by vehicles because the animals were using roads in lieu of their usual trails, which were covered by deep snow and ice.
“For the killer whales, I honestly don’t know if this is normal or not,” said Mandy Keogh, the Regional Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator for NOAA Fisheries in Alaska. Dead killer whales simply aren’t seen that often.
Officials have been receiving reports of Steller sea lions hauling out on beaches in poor condition, but have been unable to retrieve the animals for research — largely because they are in remote areas.
Norton Sound residents have reported salmon die-offs in unusually large numbers during the last week. According to the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC), dead pre-spawned pink salmon were found in multiple river systems over the weekend.
“The midpoint of the Anchor River king salmon run was extremely late. These fish are really having some odd, unprecedented run timing and behavior."
Along with significant seabird die-offs near Port Heiden, there have been reports of small whales and porpoises, walrus and sea otters washed up on shore.
"We’re way, well below what we expect to be at this point,” said Jeremy Botz, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He says so far the entire commercial fleet has harvested around 6,000 sockeye, which is way below what the department anticipated
Two dead whales have washed up on Unalaska's shores in the past week: an adult fin whale — which is the second largest mammal in the world — and a juvenile humpback.
Three dead gray whales washed up on two different Kodiak Island beaches recently. The strandings happened within the span of a week.
The species has been spotted in the Inside Passage before. But sightings are infrequent. A whale found recently near Juneau is thought to have died from a vessel strike.
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