Gambell

A rough legged hawk got a second lease on life when a Gambell woman and her mother happened upon the injured bird while riding their ATV, coming to its aid and then sending it to a bird sanctuary in Anchorage, where the animal will be nursed to health to be released back into the wild.

The community of Gambell fought a distemper outbreak among its dog population this spring and managed to squash the epidemic in its early onset. Distemper is a deadly disease that can afflict dogs and wildlife alike and also has been documented in the North Atlantic to jump from dogs to marine mammals like seals.

Nome and the surrounding area, including St. Lawrence Island, is fighting rabies almost as hard as it is fighting COVID-19. Because of the high level of rabies infection Fish and Game requested assistance from the National Rabies Management Response Program. Their job is to manage a wildlife disease outbreak. Several technicians and a rabies biologist are in Nome reducing the number of foxes.

Residents across the Bering Strait have continued to report unusual amounts of foreign trash washing up on their beaches. After months of working on the models, NOAA has been able to pin the source of the debris as likely somewhere southwest of St. Lawrence Island in the Gulf of Anadyr.

As I write, we have yet to see sea ice reach the Utqiagvik shores.

I knew that those Japanese currents would come to our waters, and so that’s why I volunteered to do the testing,” Eddie Ungott, a resident of Gambell.

Since 2014 St. Lawrence Islanders have been collecting sea water samples, knowing that the radiation would eventually show up. Now the signature of Fukushima has finally been identified, the northern most sample evidence of the plume. Fortunately the levels are low.

Carcasses examined so far have shown no indication of disease, and tests are pending for harmful algal toxins. Seabirds have been found emaciated and starved, and changed ocean conditions may have affected prey.

For the second year in a row, dead seabirds are washing up on beaches throughout the region by the hundreds. The birds appear to be starving, but scientists say the story is more complicated.

That hurts coastal communities that hunt on the ice. But colder weather may be coming, at least to some portions of Alaska.

The National Weather Service forecast wind gusts up to 50 mph in some places and whiteout conditions.

Alaskans from St. Lawrence Island were hospitalized with the food-borne parasite trichinella, which used to more typically infect pork. The CDC and state public health officials issued warnings.

Thinning sea ice puts walruses nearly out of reach. The federal government may list walruses as an endangered species. And ivory bans elsewhere are making it hard for walrus-tusk carvers to sell their art.

Winter storm shuts down communication services for the community.

A newly published study shows the presence of chemical pollutants in marine mammals and reindeer hunted by St. Lawrence Island villagers.