These windy conditions have started to negatively impact sea ice coverage in the Bering Strait. Based on satellite imagery and observations from residents across the region, more open water has started to appear along coastlines and thicker ice has been pushed around, climatologist Rick Thoman said. He noted that sea ice conditions are drastically different in the Bering Strait than they were five days ago.
The City of Unalakleet now has a working generator to power its local water plant, but the community plans to be on a boil water notice for an extended period of time.
Earlier this week, a pod of about nine Bowhead whales were seen off the northern coast of Savoonga but young ice conditions around St. Lawrence Island prevented hunting. If local hunters hauled a whale out onto young ice, it would break apart.
The commercial Silver harvest in the Norton Sound yielded the lowest numbers since 2002.This trend follows suit from last year as well, which yielded far less than projected. The run was “very poor,” Menard said. The preliminary catch was 7,100 Silvers. That’s less than half caught in the commercial fishery last year.
The main Bering Sea ice pack has begun its retreat to the north after extending to the Pribilofs earlier this month. This winter’s freeze-up has been reminiscent of more historical sea ice conditions.
After no commercial crabbing since 2019, this summer’s Norton Sound Red King Crab fishery had a record year of $3.7 million dollars in ex-vessel value.
The prospects are dim for this summer’s Norton Sound commercial fishing and crabbing seasons.
March brought a series of storms across the Seward Peninsula, and in one Bering Strait community that meant a series of power outages. The storms are stronger than residents recall in the past.
Several communities in the Norton Sound are struggling with contaminated drinking water days after the significant September storm hit the region.
GOLOVIN RESIDENTS ARE IN CLEANUP MODE as their community works to restore power, phone service and clear debris. After the flood waters receded from the weekend’s severe fall storm, some locals are left with feet of sand in their homes. “At my place we’ve got three feet of sand we’re still shoveling out with the crew here, trying to get the sand out of the living area so we can get the sheetrock to go ahead and dry off,” Alaska Senator Donny Olson of Golovin said.
The head of Alaska’s Wildlife Disease and Health Surveillance Program confirms that the City of Nome has a higher than normal case count of rabies in the red fox population. Usually in winter, most of the cases come from Prudhoe Bay and Utqiagvik. This winter most of the cases are from Nome, as well as from Kivalina and other villages around Kotzebue.
Unalakleet’s supply of water was running on empty following a nasty freeze-up at the end of December. Freezing rain led to a frozen pool of standing water that shifted the community’s pump house before the New Year. This dropped the flow of water into the water tank and levels were down to two feet earlier the first week of January.
Coastal seabirds have experienced significant die-offs in Western Alaska the past few years. But recent results suggest that offshore birds are also feeling the impact of low ice and warming ocean temperatures in the Bering Sea.
Fishermen fishing close to the shore in the Baltic Sea have seen a steady decline in herring and Baltic herring catches over many years. Large-scale trawling further out at sea could be one of the reasons behind it.
African swine fever is harmless to humans but deadly to pigs and wild boars. An outbreak in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia this summer has led farmers there to cull thousands of animals.
Drought conditions across Upcountry Maui have prompted the county to update its water shortage status for the unforeseeable future. Demand for water in the area currently exceeds supply by 20% — which moves its status from Stage 1 to Stage 2, county officials said Thursday.
Bird flu, or avian influenza, has struck the Swedish poultry industry hard this winter. Since November, thousands of turkeys and more than one million chickens have been culled. Malin Grant, an epidemiologist at the National Veterinary Institute, says the virus can be deadly for domestic poultry but the strains currently circulating don't easily infect or spread between people.
More rain and a blanket of snow in recent months has helped Sweden's groundwater levels recover significantly after dropping in several parts of the country.
Bird flu may be the reason behind a drastic decrease in the number of peregrine falcons in Sweden this year. Every year there is a stock count of the number of peregrine falcons in Sweden and this year early numbers indicate there may be a big drop in the number of birds counted.
Chris Whitty captured stunning photos of a rare white loon in British Columbia, marking an unusual wildlife sighting.
All Topics
All Countries
Any Date
Apply