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At the end of a dock in Auke Bay, an oyster farmer lifted a creaky hatch door on an unassuming floating platform. Inside were bins holding thousands of young oysters, called spat.

The platform is called a floating upweller system, or FLUPSY, and it’s one way oyster farms can keep more stock.  

“This is just a cheaper way to buy spat in a smaller size, much bigger quantity,” said Maranda Hamme, owner of Shinaku Shellfish Company, a small, family-run Pacific oyster farm in Klawock. Hamme was part of a small group that visited Juneau for a day-long mariculture workshop organized by Alaska Sea Grant and the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska last week.

Nutrient-rich water flushes through the FLUPSY, so the tiny oysters can quickly grow big enough to fit into mesh bags out on a farm. The oysters in the FLUPSY are around the size of a penny — they’ve been growing here for roughly 9 months.

The FLUPSY in Auke Bay belongs to Salty Lady Seafood Company, the only oyster farm in Juneau. Hamme said she’s planning to stock her own FLUPSY in Klawock because it can help her scale up, even when there are bottlenecks in the supply chain. 

“Currently, there’s only so many FLUPSYs in the state, and as a farmer, we’ve already not had seed needs met,” she said.

Most oyster farmers in Alaska, including Hamme, have to ship in spat from out-of-state hatcheries in Hawaii, Washington, Oregon or California. Sometimes there are shortages at those hatcheries. 

Spencer Lunda manages the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ mariculture research hatchery at Lena Point. He said developing in-state hatcheries can help solve that problem. 

The facility pumps in seawater that gets heated and flows into troughs filled with oysters, where Lunda and his team are studying ways to produce spat locally for farms across Alaska. 

“It would be nice to have spat production in the state, and be able to produce oysters that perform better in the conditions of Alaska, because the water is very cold here compared to where oysters are typically grown,” he said. 

Lunda said the ultimate goal is to breed oysters that grow relatively quickly in cold water and form a deep cup with a lot of meat — traits desirable for both farmers trying to turn a profit and consumers slurping them from the half-shell. 

Back on the dock, Hamme said the lease process to enter the industry is another issue that could be improved.

“I’m here sharing about being a farmer and the struggles and challenges that we face firsthand so other Indigenous farmers can get into the industry,” said Hamme.

She said it took two years to get an aquatic farm lease through the state. She also said the process doesn’t include tribal consultation to see whether proposed farm sites would overlap with subsistence seafood harvest sites.  

“I think it’s crucial that the state of Alaska incorporates tribal consultation, rather than just city government,” Hamme said. 

But developing mariculture operations could become a boon for Native communities, too. 

Frank Nix, the cultural foods manager for the Organized Village of Kasaan, attended the workshop to see how mariculture could bolster economic development and food security in his small village. 

“Most of us are already working three or four jobs, and all of our facilities are running three or four programs,” Nix said after touring the small Auke Bay oyster hatchery. “So when it comes to looking at opportunities like, well, maybe we don’t have the manpower to run a farm — but, you know, it seemed like one or two people could manage a space of the size that we were just in.” 

He said he’s grateful to attend the workshop on a travel scholarship, and the recent availability of funding and training in Alaska mariculture makes the industry attractive. 

“I think one of the most valuable things that I’ve seen so far is that this seems perfectly doable,” he said.

The Arctic continues to warm faster than other parts of the planet and is seeing record high temperatures and record low sea ice levels. That’s according to the 2025 Arctic Report Card, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released today.

For the past 20 years, the report has documented changes in snow and sea ice cover as well as air and ocean temperatures in the northern part of the globe. In that time, it’s shown that the Arctic’s annual temperature has increased at more than double the global rate of temperature changes.

The warming is affecting the environment and food security for those who call the region home, said Hannah-Marie Ladd, one of the report’s authors.

“These changes cascade directly into people’s lives, affecting fisheries, coastal safety and subsistence harvests,” Ladd said. “We are no longer just documenting warming. We are witnessing an entire marine ecosystem, which is tied to our economies and culture, transform within a single generation.”

Ladd is the director of Indigenous Sentinels Network, a program established by the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island to help Alaska Native communities monitor their environment. She was one the speakers from various research agencies who detailed this year’s Arctic Report Card at a press conference at the American Geophysical Union conference in New Orleans.

The report, which is the work of more than 100 authors from 13 countries, showed that the Arctic region experienced some of the highest temperatures since the turn of the century.

“October 2024 through September 2025, the Arctic experienced the highest temperatures on record since at least 1900,” said Matthew Druckenmiller,  a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado and lead editor of the report. “This included the warmest autumn, the second warmest winter and the third warmest summer ever observed.”

Warming linked to the ferocity of ex-Typhoon Halong 

The rapid warming of the Arctic is amplified by the loss of reflective sea ice and snow, Druckenmiller said. The report showed that last March, Arctic winter sea ice reached its lowest annual maximum extent in nearly 50 years of satellite records.

Druckenmiller said that the oldest, thickest sea ice has also declined by over 95% since the ’80s, primarily remaining in areas north of Greenland and the Canadian Archipelago.

“Thinner ice is then much more mobile with wind and current, and much less resilient against warming waters,” he said. “This means much more unpredictable ice conditions for those both living and working in the Arctic.”

Druckenmiller said that the report underscored the interconnectedness of Arctic changes. He said one example is the remnants of Typhoon Halong, which battered Western Alaska in October

“Prior to this storm, temperatures in the Bering Sea were well above normal, which contributed to the strength. The storm brought hurricane force winds, storm surge and catastrophic flooding, which displaced nearly 1,500 residents from across the region,” he said. “Still today, these communities are assessing the damage and trying to figure out how to resume their lives.”

Druckenmiller said that because of the amplified warming in the Arctic, scientists expect further disruptive changes and events like that storm.

Fewer fish in rusting rivers

Arctic rivers are changing, too. The report highlighted an emerging phenomenon called rusting rivers. That’s likely caused when permafrost thaw allows groundwater to seep deeper and interact with mineral deposits, turning some streams and rivers a rusty orange color.

In Alaska, over 200 streams turned orange in recent years. That affected aquatic biodiversity and water quality, said Abigail Pruitt, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Davis who studies rusting rivers.

“Within Kobuk Valley National Park, we observed the complete loss of juvenile Dolly Varden and Slimy Sculpin in a tributary to the Akillik river when it turned orange,” Pruitt said. “Beyond the effects on fish, rusting rivers may impact drinking water supplies to rural communities as well.”

Partnerships between Indigenous communities and scientists

The report also highlights how Indigenous communities have been observing the changes in their environments and collaborating with scientists to better understand those changes.

Ladd, with the Indigenous Sentinels Network, described one example of such work – the BRAIDED Food Security Project. She said that St. Paul residents collect samples of harvested traditional foods, like seabirds, marine mammals and halibut. Harvesters donate those samples to a recently established and tribally owned laboratory at the Bering Sea Research Center. Then local employees, with the help from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, analyze the samples for contaminants like mercury.

“What’s happening on St Paul Island offers a model for resilience and collaborative research everywhere,” Ladd said.

She went on to say that Indigenous leadership and participation would be essential to future efforts toward understanding and adapting to the changing Arctic.

The federal government research organization that has been devoted for half a century to renewable energy development has had the word “renewable” stripped from its name.

The Trump administration, which broadly opposes renewable energy projects, changed the name of the Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory to “National Laboratory of the Rockies.”

The U.S. Department of Energy announced the name change on Monday, effective immediately.

“The energy crisis we face today is unlike the crisis that gave rise to NREL,” Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson said in a statement. “We are no longer picking and choosing energy sources. Our highest priority is to invest in the scientific capabilities that will restore American manufacturing, drive down costs, and help this country meet its soaring energy demand. The National Laboratory of the Rockies will play a vital role in those efforts.”

NREL has a prominent presence in Alaska. The agency in 2020 joined into a partnership with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The UAF facility is one of four NREL centers; two campuses are in Colorado and there is an office in Washington, D.C.

Jud Virden, the laboratory’s director, said the new name “embraces a broader applied energy mission entrusted to us by the Department of Energy to deliver a more affordable and secure energy future for all,” according to the statement.

However, the name change is a troubling sign to one Alaska organization involved in projects promoting renewable energy and energy affordability.

“Removing ‘Renewable’ and ‘Energy’ from NREL’s name raises concerns. Renewables are key to affordable, secure energy and deliver long-term economic benefits, especially for rural communities,” Bridget Shaughnessy Smith, communications director for the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, a non-profit consumer advocacy group, said by email.

“While it’s not yet clear if this name change signals a broad mission shift, any refocus cannot come at the expense of renewable energy or by prioritizing already well-funded fossil fuel industries. Remote microgrid communities in Alaska are working with NREL to innovate toward affordable, reliable energy, and this name change must not disrupt that critical work,” Shaughnessy Smith continued.

NREL’s history started in 1974, when the organization was established as the Solar Energy Research Institute. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush elevated it to national lab status and changed the name to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The Cold Climate Housing Research Center was established in 1999 with a mission of improving housing and building conditions in Alaska’s extreme climate. The center has focused on renewable energy, along with energy efficiency, structural integrity for buildings on permafrost, indoor air quality and designs that are sustainable in the far north. The center headquarters is the world’s farthest-north building with a platinum rating, the highest possible, bestowed by the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

The NREL-Cold Climate Housing Research Center partnership has participated in numerous recent energy and environmental innovations, including the development of non-plastic housing insulation made from a fungi-wood pulp blend.

The NREL name change adds to a list of government agencies and geographic sites changed by the Trump administration this year to align with the president’s agenda.

On the day he was inaugurated for his second term, President Trump issued an executive order directing that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed “Gulf of America” and that Denali, North America’s tallest peak, revert to its previous federal name, Mount McKinley.

The Denali name comes from the traditional name for the Alaska peak used by the Koyukon people, the region’s Indigenous residents. The name, which translates to “the high one,” has been the official state of Alaska name since the 1970s. The McKinley name, for former president and Ohioan William McKinley, has been widely panned in Alaska, and state lawmakers passed a resolution asking for the Denali name to be restored for federal government use.

In September, Trump issued an executive order directing that the U.S Department of Defense be renamed “Department of War.” That resurrected a department name that was dropped in 1947.

It was ten below in Fairbanks on Tuesday night. Undeterred, a crowd of people flocked to a popular overlook at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus to watch for the aurora.

Fatin Pasha stood outside his car shivering, with a fur trapper hat pulled down over his ears. He said he’d just moved to Fairbanks from Missouri, and the lights were part of what brought him here.

But in the early hours of the night, Pasha said he could only see the faintest blush of color in the skies.

“It’s just a tad reddish,” he said. “Not a whole lot, yet. I’ve seen some beautiful pictures, though. So, I’m hanging around in this negative weather, hoping to catch a glimpse.”

At first, it was hard to tell if the faint glow was the aurora, or just a trick of the city lights, the exhaust from our cars, or the fog of our breath. But about a half hour later, the pink haze deepened into scarlet, and pillars of light danced across the sky.

Those same lights were visible all over the country — as far south as the Florida panhandle.

The light show is part of what UAF scientists are calling an unusual series of x-class solar flares that started on Monday, sending out an enormous plasma cloud called a coronal mass ejection, or CME.

The event produced one unsettlingly named “cannibal” ejection, so named because it caught up to and merged with other clouds of plasma.

These x-class flares are the most intense ones — and potentially the most destructive. According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, they can disrupt satellite communications, GPS systems, power grids, and even trigger radio blackouts.

Mark Conde, a space physicist at UAF, said this three-fold hit is one of the most significant solar events he’s observed in his career. The third wave hit at around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, during Conde’s interview with KUAC. He said it disrupted the monitoring systems he was looking at and briefly prevented him from sharing data.

Conde said a smaller storm than this knocked out about 40 SpaceX satellites in February of 2022.

“They were unlucky,” Conde said. “They put them in this low altitude orbit first. And they happened to experience a storm right when the satellites were most vulnerable.”

The predicted speed of the third coronal mass ejection in the series was the highest he’d ever seen: about 870 miles per second. Conde said that although the best auroras were forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, the lights could continue to shine for the next few days.

“We might get another one or two of these before the solar cycle calms down,” he said. “Then we have to wait another 11 years to get the next one. So the event we’re experiencing right now is certainly not an everyday event by any stretch of the imagination.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is halting a contract that makes it possible for the federal agency to accurately monitor for potential tsunamis in Alaska – and quickly warn at-risk communities.

The Alaska Earthquake Center for decades has collected data from seismology stations across the state and directly fed the information to NOAA’s National Tsunami Center, in Palmer. If the data indicates an earthquake that could lead to a tsunami, the Tsunami Center sends out a warning message within minutes.

Or at least that’s how it worked historically, including on Thursday morning, when an earthquake struck between Seward and Homer.

But that’s about to change. In late September, the federal agency advised the Alaska Earthquake Center that it does not have funding available for that work.

“We are anticipating direct data feeds to stop in mid-November,” said Mike West, the Alaska State Seismologist and director of the Alaska Earthquake Center, which is part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute.

The news comes amid the Trump administration’s effort to dramatically slash federal spending – including by proposed cuts to key weather and climate programs within NOAA.

West said the change is a big deal. NOAA’s National Weather Service holds the federal responsibility for tsunami warnings, and has historically been a primary supporter of seismic data collection in Alaska. But the agency doesn’t actually collect much of that data itself.

“Without this contract,” West said, “they lose data from dozens and dozens of sites all around the state, and specifically – or maybe more urgently – a handful of sites out in the Aleutians and the Bering that have been there for decades specifically for this purpose.”

The potential fallout isn’t isolated to Alaska. West provided an example: the 1946 tsunami that originated near the Aleutians, and killed more than 150 people in Hawaii.

“The tsunami threats from Alaska are not just an Alaska problem,” West said.

The contract was supposed to re-start October 1. But after funding did not arrive as expected, West reached out to the agency on Sept. 23. A NOAA official advised him via email a week later that the agency did not have the budget to support the long-standing contract.

West said the Earthquake Center is grappling with the situation but that its NOAA data feeds and tsunami-specific work will wind down in November.

“We are not going to continue operating those stations in the Aleutians that are entirely NOAA supported,” he said. “We’re not going to just keep doing it.”

NOAA did not respond to a request for comment. NOAA Tsunami Warning Coordinator David Snider declined to comment for this story.

Alaska’s largest residential internet provider may soon come under the control of billionaire businessman John Malone, one of America’s biggest private landowners and wealthiest people.

On Oct. 3, Malone filed paperwork with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska asking for permission to take majority ownership of GCI Liberty Inc., the parent company of GCI Communications, Alaska’s largest internet company.

Malone already owns a majority of GCI Liberty’s voting shares, according to RCA filings, but until now has been limited by agreements that hold his voting power below 50%.

According to the filings, Malone is asking for authority to increase his voting power to “a level that would constitute control of GCI Liberty and its certificated subsidiary GCICC.”

The filings also state that both GCI Liberty and Malone have asked for a waiver that would allow them to keep their financial documents confidential.

Under state law and regulation, those documents would ordinarily be available for public inspection as part of regulators’ approval process.

Public comments on the request for secrecy are due to RCA by Tuesday, Oct. 28, and the state regulator is expected to review the takeover request after that date.

The takeover would also affect United Utilities, which provides telephone and internet service in rural Alaska, including much of the Yukon-Kuskokwim river delta region, filings show.