Oceans

The annual fishery didn’t happen at all in 2019 and 2020. Most of the herring were young and too small to meet international market demands, and the pandemic posed other challenges in 2020.

National Weather Service climate researcher Brian Brettschneider spoke with Alaska Public Media’s Casey Grove to explain the storm that brought the lowest atmospheric pressure ever recorded in the North Pacific.

Scientists aren’t sure why the razor clam crash started about a decade ago. What they do know is that stocks aren’t rebounding.

The bill creates a marine debris response trust fund for clean up and aims to reduce plastic waste entering the ocean with grants for studying waste management and mitigation.

The U.S. Congress has appropriated more than $3.6 million to monitor transboundary watersheds and for diplomatic efforts in cross-border negotiations with Canada.

On the east coast, these hardy crustaceans are known as aggressive eaters and have meant millions of dollars lost in fisheries for clams, mussels and scallops. The crab are destructive to eelgrass beds, which are important to young fish. They’re also known to eat juvenile salmon and could compete with native Dungeness crab.

The state says nearly 8,000 gallons of “slop oil” leaked out of an underground line at Hilcorp’s onshore Trading Bay production facility.

Federal managers voted to close a huge swath of Upper Cook Inlet to commercial salmon fishing, capping a two-year fight over the fate of the fishery and its 500 permit-holders.

This year was the second warmest on record in the Arctic, with impacts to sea ice, erosion and marine ecosystems.

For opponents of the project, the Army Corps’ decision released a wave of relief. For those who backed the project, the decision comes as a harsh blow.