Background Articles

Nuiqsut's Napageak crew, captained by Thomas Napageak, landed the very first bowhead of the season on Aug. 29. It was a 29.5 foot whale.

With some of this year's salmon runs projected to be the lowest on record, West Coast salmon fishermen are demanding disaster relief from the federal and provincial governments.

From the Koyukuk River, to the Kuskokwim, to Norton Sound, to Bristol Bay’s Igushik River, unusually warm temperatures across Alaska this summer led to die-offs of unspawned chum, sockeye and pink salmon. Warm waters also sometimes this summer acted as a “thermal block” — essentially a wall of heat salmon don’t swim past, delaying upriver migration.

An increasing number of marine researchers say the voracious eaters are thriving at the expense of higher-value sockeye salmon, seabirds and other species with whom their diet overlaps.

Somewhere between the size of a sewer rat and a beaver, with a tail resembling that of an opossum and protruding, nacho cheese-colored teeth, the nutria is both impressively unattractive and highly destructive.

Average temperature for month amid Arctic heatwave was 58.1F (14.5C), nearly 1F above previous high set in July 2004

These tiny, black, thread-like pests dig into plants and like to hang about in gangs, which is why you see so many of them. It is as if they want to be as annoying as possible.

Bees, butterflies, and other insects are under attack by the very plants they feed on as U.S. agriculture continues to use chemicals known to kill.

Around the world, 17 countries are currently facing extremely high water stress. Climate change is making the problem worse.

Global warming is shrinking the permanently frozen ground across Siberia, disrupting everyday life in one of the coldest inhabited places on earth.

These changes seem to be heralding population spikes and downturns for a number of species like walleye pollock and Pacific cod, and even more pronounced in small, fatty forage species.

According to the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists, the most frequently cited causes of bee mortality were weather, starvation, poor queens and weak colonies in the fall.

Authorities say some 300,000 bee colonies died in June and July. Experts blame pesticides — specifically neonicotinoids — but also varroa mites, the loss of natural habitat and flowers, and, more recently, climate change.

Sea surface temperatures are 9 degrees higher than normal in some areas off Western Alaska.

Spring has become warmer in Norway's easternmost city. Now Vardø may lose its Arctic climate.

Colonies suffered from parasitic, disease-spreading Varroa mites. Floods and fire didn’t help.

NOAA is investigating what it’s calling “unusually large numbers” of seal deaths.

Fish and Game says tularemia is showing up early this year in snowshoe hares around the Interior and areas south of the Alaska Range. Tularemia is a bacteria that can pass to pets and people, causing serious illness.

Much goes to indicate that such toxins may cause damages to children’s central nervous system. Scientists in Tromsø, Norway have long worked to map the extent of environmental toxins in the Arctic populations, and the result is frightening.

The entirety of Southeast Alaska is in some state of drought.