The storm event on October 21st brought an invasion of jellyfish to flooded areas. Eating jellyfishis thought to have resulted in one dog fatality, raising concerns for pet owners across Kotzebue.

A new plant species is establishing itself in the area and impacting native beach greens.

"Grayling guts with unknown pearl like cyst or tapeworm. Never seen this before in our grayling."

Starfish wasting observed in Kassan for the first time in several years.

From the images shared, these appear to be Philemona, a freshwater parasite. Philomena is a food quality concern but is Not considered a human health concern. With proper preparation, the salmon is safe to eat.

This crab from the Pacific Ocean was once introduced into the Barents waters of the Soviet Union in Arctic Russia. Since then the invasive species has spread to Norway’s Barents Sea and a multi-million dollar industry has sprung up around it. In 2023 Norway exported 2,500 tons of king crab worth 1,2 billion kroner (€100 million).

A crab was caught on the ice just offshore in Nome. It had a small invertebrate in the gills of the crab.

An unprecedented outbreak of sea lice in Tálknafjörður has led to the loss, or the need to dispose of, at least one million salmon. “Nobody has seen anything like this before. There is a Norwegian veterinarian who has been working in Iceland because of this and he has never seen anything like this in his 30-year career,” Karl Steinar observed.

The snow crab harvest in Alaska has been canceled for the second year in a row due to concerns about population sustainability, but red king crab and Tanner crab will be available for commercial fishermen this season. Last year was the first time in history the U.S. snow crab fishery was closed. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said the harvests were closed over concerns about long-term conservation and the sustainability of crab stocks.

While many Bering Sea crab populations find themselves in freefall, Dungeness crab is breaking records in regions that used to hardly see them.

Blue mussels collected on 6/15/2023, were way above the FDA limit for safe consumption of 80 μg/100g.

High levels of PSP toxins have been found in razor clams in Chignik Lagoon and blue mussels in Sand Point, Alaska, making them unsafe to eat and potentially causing paralytic shellfish poisoning, with no known cure.

"My son found this helmet floating here in Prince William Sound."

The invasive Pacific oyster is spreading rapidly in Oslofjord, causing injuries to bathers and threatening local ecosystems, with Oslo municipality now offering a reward for their removal.

Scientists said the critically-endangered species had previously only been found in rivers and know pearl mussels have been discovered in the Scotland Lochs.

Test results show the bloom was almost certainly to blame for mass deaths of kina as well as crayfish, starfish and sea cucumber which washed ashore at Hardinge Rd, including Sandy Beach, and on a small part of Westshore Beach eight days ago.

Just over a year ago, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game applied the pesticide rotenone to two lakes and a stream in the remote Miller Creek drainage on the northern Kenai Peninsula to eradicate the last known population of invasive northern pike on the Kenai Peninsula.

The Bering Sea’s cold pool, a critical part of the seafloor ecosystem, had shrunk to a worrying degree in recent years, but it is continuing to slowly return, according to the latest results of NOAA’s bottom trawl survey. Saffron cod, also called tomcod, seems to be bouncing back after a few bad years, and Arctic cod and blue king crab numbers were also better.

By Diana Haecker

Die-offs of krill are in some cases associated with hypoxia (low oxygen) excess sediment suspended in the water column and changes in water temperature. There were recent reports of high levels of Alexandrium in water samples in the areas, and Norton Sound Health Corporation is performing some testing of krill samples (see below). There was also an unprecedented storm event only a week ago, unusual for the storm surge and early season.