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. 

More than 80 per cent of B.C.'s water basins are experiencing level 4 or 5 drought conditions, with salmon in many parts of the province struggling to make it to their spawning grounds.

The most-expensive project in the nationwide initiative is $25 million for Alaska to replace a dozen culvert sites along the Parks Highway.

Southeast trollers brought in about 85,000 king salmon from July 1 to July 12, around 8,000 fish over the target for the first opener of the season. Nevertheless, the fishing was pretty good for the 500 boats that stayed in the game. Hagerman says three days of bad weather during the opener meant for some busy days during good conditions. A lot of the work involved shaking undersize kings, which were below the legal length of 28-inches, and trying to keep hooks free for bigger fish.

Amid the collapse of chum and chinook salmon on the river, the Smokehouse Collective is trying to build sustainable, resilient food systems for Native communities.

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

As king salmon decline in the Bristol Bay region, changes to king salmon harvest include reduced bag limits, area closures, as well as the introduction of youth-only fisheries in the Naknek River.

Knik Tribe officials have found very high levels of the toxin which causes paralytic shellfish poisoning in samples from Southern Alaska mussels and clams — but they warn that parts of some fish, including king salmon, may also contain the toxin

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.

The Bureau of Land Management, in partnership with the Salcha-Delta Soil and Water Conservation District and Trout Unlimited, are restoring mining-impacted streams along the upper Yukon River watershed. Projects will improve water quality and fish habitat along Nome and Wade Creeks.

This film is for young people and anyone in the Northwest Arctic who is curious about how (and why) to siifish, and how to process the fish after catching.

Now, for the first time, researchers have concrete evidence that northern pike could use the ocean to move between freshwater Alaska habitats.

Biologists and others are hoping that a new phone app will encourage Alaskans to help map fish species living in the state's rivers and streams.

A group of Indigenous communities from Alaska and B.C. has declared a state of emergency related to Pacific salmon populations, and says First Nations need to be more involved in managing traditional resources. 

Chinook (king) and chum are the major salmon species on the Yukon and Kuskokwim. They’ve been at historically low numbers in both rivers for years. The coho (silver) returns have also dropped.This will be the fourth year subsistence fishing has been closed or severely restricted on both rivers. The region is bracing for another dismal subsistence harvest.

Following a thaw slump, the water becomes cloudy and full of sediment, potentially suffocating the eggs of spawning sheefish. Scientists are concerned that permafrost thaw could lead to declines in the sheefish population, a staple food for many Alaskans.

This summer, Kenai Peninsula beaches from Ninilchik to Kenai will be empty of setnets and buoys. Family-run commerial fishing businesses, a major economic force in the Cook Inlet region since territorial days, have been shut down and may not be coming back.

Climate change is knocking some Pacific salmon out of alignment with the growth of the ocean plankton they eat to survive, new research says.

Ambler Elder Virginia Commack said that the borough's decision does not reflect the opinion of many Northwest Arctic residents. This month, almost 80 Northwest Arctic residents, current and former, signed the petition against the development of the Ambler road project. When the Alaska Department of Natural Resources held two public hearings last year, out of about 37 people who called, only two spoke in support of the project.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has allowed for 1,500 grey seals to be hunted in the Baltic Sea and 630 harbour seals on the west coast.