Background Articles

Researchers say climate change is playing a big role in the collapse, which has left thousands of people along the river without the salmon they depend on. 

Teller is considering moving to a new subdivision site to avoid flood zones and eventually connect to water and sewer systems, with the project estimated to be completed by summer 2025.

While the ships are free to pass through the Bering Strait, its 55-mile width means that any spills would be likely to drift toward Alaska communities.

The Southeast Alaska commercial red and blue king crab fishery will remain closed for the upcoming season due to low stock numbers, although some areas have shown signs of rebounding, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Severe Vibrio vulnificus infections in the United States are associated with warming coastal waters, with an increase in infections in the Eastern United States and an expanded geographic range.

A decline in the population of sea otters, a well-known predator of urchins and other kelp-eating critters, led to the spread of “urchin barrens” along the Pacific coast, where urchins have mowed down entire kelp forests. Now, researchers are trying to figure out if, and how, other predators such as sunflower stars could play a complementary role in protecting the kelp forests.

So far, 22 sea lions have been found, with signs of human interaction, including gunshot wounds.

Extreme weather events like Typhoon Merbok are becoming more common, and many Alaska communities are wondering about the future.

Satellite images from NASA show the alarming and above-average ice loss in Greenland due to rising temperatures, with significant melting and a transformation of the snow cover observed during the 2023 melting season.

The forces of climate change that are reducing ice cover and opening up the Arctic to more activity are making Alaska more important in regards to Homeland Security. For the Department, which has a combination of public safety, emergency response and law-enforcement functions, climate change is creating new challenges for which old responses are no longer adequate.

The virtual reality project Qikiqtaruk: Arctic at Risk is transporting people to Yukon's northernmost point without them ever having to leave home.

Kiwi crews exposed to radiation at Mururoa Atoll hold concerns for subsequent generations.

Scientists say worsening heat waves have a clear link to climate change. This year, a seasonal El Niño pattern will also be adding fuel to the fire.

Beluga whales in Cook Inlet have been in a long period of decline, about two percent a year. But a new population count points to a reversal. The latest numbers have led researchers to declare the population stable for the first time in decades.

A research project found that the Bering Strait is at least a meter deeper on the Alaska side than previously believed, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center. The project evaluated new and old bathymetric surveys, applying modern technology to the latter to more accurately pinpoint locations.

$513,000 was vetoed in state budget that would have looked into the origin of salmon caught by the Bering Sea pollock fleet.

A federal appeals panel issued a last-second ruling Wednesday that will allow this summer’s Southeast Alaska troll chinook salmon fishery to open as scheduled July 1.

It’s been a week since ice severed a fiber optic cable in the Arctic Ocean, cutting communications to several Northwest Alaska communities.

During the 1970's much of the Norwegian coastline was overfished. In the past, a kelp forest provided shelter and food for local sealife. Today, the seabed, along the Norwegian coastline is a sea urchin desert. Researchers, volunteers, and the "Kelp Keepers" in Tromso, are removing the sea urchins and rebuilding the kelp forest.

Dispersants may break up an oil slick, sparing some birds and wildlife at the surface, but may increase the oil contamination for species that live lower in the water column. The toxicity of dispersants themselves is also a concern for cleanup workers and other wildlife. A group of Alaskans filed a lawsuit in 2020 to force the EPA to rewrite the rules to take into account research on the long-term effects of dispersants in Prince William Sound and elsewhere.