On February 10-11, 2025, unusually mild weather in Nome led to shorefast ice breaking free from the coastline, leaving deep blue water visible where ice had long persisted.

Warm ocean temperatures are keeping ice thin, which become easily moved by the wind. This ice movement separates commercial and subsistence crabbers from their gear, and have led to the loss of both crabbing and mining gear.

No Permanent Winter Ice and Early Break Up For Nome

The Bering Sea region is front and center for federal fisheries researchers after the 2019 heatwave produced extreme change in the marine ecosystem.

NOAA researchers are studying the connection between sea ice retreat and harmful algal blooms in the Bering Sea, aiming to improve prediction and monitoring tools for these events that pose risks to public health and marine ecosystems.