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The Arctic Sounder - Serving the Northwest Arctic and the North Slope
The North Slope offers a marginal place for a moose because far fewer willow shrubs grow there than in the boreal forest. Moose are recent invaders of the North Slope due to climate warming and expanding willow growth.
Alaska’s longest and most popular hunting season ended early this year. The Delta Junction bison hunt usually extends from October to March, but the state limited this year’s season to just two weeks, and only 50 animals were taken, because last winter’s heavy snow and ice buildup wiped out nearly a third of the Delta bison herd.
Some Southeast fishermen skipping fall season entirely, other’s say season has been “hit or miss”
The recent closure of the Bering Sea snow crab and Bristol Bay red king crab fisheries has some Western Alaska towns taking a hard look at their futures, including St. Paul.
For the first time ever, the Bering Sea snow crab fishery will not open for the upcoming season. The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery will also be closed for a second year in a row.
King crab legs for $199 a pound? There’s a reason for that.
The vast majority of callers at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting last week called for a reduction in bycatch limits, which they said would help reverse a dramatic trend of salmon declines on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers.
It's become the norm in recent years — the closure of the once-popular recreational salmon fishery on the Yukon River. And it's happening again this summer, for both chinook and chum salmon.
With marine heat waves helping to wipe out some of Alaska’s storied salmon runs in recent years, officials have resorted to sending emergency food shipments to affected communities while scientists warn that the industry’s days of traditional harvests may be numbered. Salmon all but disappeared from the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) Yukon River run last year.
Adult abundance “well below” fishery thresholds on both beaches. This outcome was not unanticipated, as the department said when opening the fishery in Ninilchik last year that adult abundance met necessary thresholds for allowing harvest — at least meeting or exceeding 50% of the historical average — but juvenile abundance was low, meaning there would likely not be enough adult clams this year or next.
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