In April, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center sent a letter to BOEM estimating that 70 rocket parts have landed in the Beaufort Sea since the 1960s. The agency’s concern, it wrote, “is that future oil and gas development in the Beaufort Sea could result in the need to protect additional persons and property when conducting launch operations.”
4 Special Coverage
Science and traditional knowledge converge in North Slope Borough’s bowhead whale program
Scientists have spent the past few decades catching up to traditional knowledge, documenting scientifically what whale hunters already knew. Like the fact that the whales can smell, and that they can travel under sea ice.
Nuclear power in Alaska? Experts say it’s not as far-fetched as you think.
Nuclear power has been explored in Alaska before, in the Interior village of Galena, and went nowhere. At an Anchorage conference this month, the Resource Development Council, an industry group, took another look.
Scientists map shifting migration around Alaska mountains, using GPS-equipped eagles
When golden eagles migrate to and from Alaska each year, they have to fly around a huge obstacle: the 16,000-foot peaks of the Wrangell Mountains. Some of the eagles choose a route that skirts the northern edge of the mountains. Others go south. A new study examined how the weather affects which way the eagles fly.
Things are heating up for Alaska pollock — and it’s putting them in the mood to spawn
Over the past three decades, pollock spawning times in the Gulf of Alaska have varied as much as three weeks. That’s potentially deadly for baby fish that are spawned into an environment that’s not ideal.
Trump administration moves to open environmentally sensitive National Petroleum Reserve land to oil drilling
The Interior department today announced it is beginning the environmental review process to re-do the management plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A, kicking off what could be Alaska’s next big environmental controversy.
New study says Chukchi polar bears are healthy despite sea ice loss — for now
“Unless the underlying problem of climate change is addressed, the sea ice is expected to continue to diminish,” said polar bear researcher Eric Regehr. “And at some point that will likely have a negative effect on the bears in this Chukchi area.”
Outgoing Lt. Gov. Davidson considers political future in Alaska
Back in high school, one of Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson’s career goals was to one day become governor. The outgoing lieutenant governor has ruled nothing out as far as continuing her life in politics.
Kawasaki’s lead appears secure for state Senate, LeBon overtakes Dodge for House seat
Overseas votes that were mailed by Election Day must arrive by Nov. 21, when the final count will happen.
Southcentral Alaska sees most destructive spruce beetle outbreak in over two decades
Southcentral Alaska is dealing with a spruce beetle outbreak. The voracious insect damaged nearly 600,000 acres of forest in 2018 and the damage continues to grow. Anchorage has seen a sharp uptick in spruce beetle damage, going from zero acres damaged in 2016 to over one thousand in 2018.