08-03-22 In response to declining numbers of Fortymile and Nelchina caribou, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is taking a more conservative approach to both harvests this fall.
Local beekeepers suspect pesticides used for controlling mosquitoes may be the cause.
The Western Arctic Caribou Herd has been declining for years, and the migration patterns of the animals have been changing. In several locations in Northwest Alaska, caribou have been arriving later and later in the season. Friday last week, people in Kotzebue finally started seeing caribou — hundreds of them ― crossing the Kotzebue Sound north of town, coming from the Noatak riverside. Ice conditions are one of the reasons for the caribou’s late migration, said Thomas Baker, chair of the Northwest Arctic Subsistence Regional Advisory Council.
More than 1,000 domestic poultry and hundreds of wild birds have died or needed to be euthanized in the state since early spring. Since the first case of a deadly strain of avian flu was detected in Alaska in May, more than 1,000 domestic poultry and hundreds of wild birds have died or needed to be euthanized.
A total of 94 brown bears, five black bears and five wolves were killed in the program that began May 10 and ended June 4, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said this week. That’s more than four times the number biologists predicted would be taken. State biologists also say disease and changing food supplies might be a bigger factor overall.
Two popular rivers are being closed to fishing because almost no cohos are making it upstream.
With a bleak salmon return this year in Northwest Alaska, a lifelong fisherman reflects on a season marked by empty nets and big questions.
Weak returns forced the latest restriction. Good news: Sockeye fishing at the Russian River is forecast to be good.
Chum returns are the lowest on record, leaving communities with empty freezers and uncertainty about getting through the winter.
Volunteers at the Whittier Slug-Out learned about Alaska’s invasive species and helped mitigate European black slugs near a popular cove on Prince William Sound.
Fred Meyer is employing an aggressive pest-control plan after customers spotted mice in the store through Southcentral Alaska’s unusually warm summer.
Biologists struggle to single out a leading cause of the caribou population’s decline. Increased wolf predation, changed migration patterns and climate warming affecting food sources can all influence the herd. “It’s going to be another rough winter again this year without caribou,” Selawik resident Norma Ballot said.
Aerial surveys this September and October show the bowheads aren’t where they usually are.
The Bering Sea island is breeding habitat for millions of seabirds, including rare migratory species. A “strike team” had been searching for the rogue rat for 10 months.
“You could take your sailboat and sail from Dillingham all the way to Little Diomede and never see much more than an ice cube.
The Seward facility began housing five seals found in the Cook Inlet area and another that was rescued in Juneau.
Even if a storm does hit Western Alaska, thicker sea ice will always be more resistant than last year’s ice was at this time, a climatologist says.
Village wildlife observers worry that the unusual warmth of oceans off Alaska is causing problems throughout the ecosystem.
The outlook for blueberries in Southcentral Alaska this year is bleak, scientists say. The reason: Two species of moth have damaged berry patches, as well as native deciduous trees, from the southern Kenai Peninsula to Mat-Su.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game found an unexpectedly low number of clams during final surveying, but the agency still plans to monitor them in support of perhaps opening the fishery in years to come.
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