The vast majority of confirmed whale entanglements involved humpback whales.
Oceans
Fishing boat that ran aground off Unimak Island will be scuttled
A salvage company says the 98-foot F/V Pacific Sounder is too stuck to be towed.
Pollutants from far distances found in Bering Sea animals hunted by Indigenous people
A study of subsistence foods at St. Lawrence Island shows how contaminants carried to the far north by atmospheric and ocean currents persist for years, burdening the region’s Indigenous people.
Scientists examine Gulf of Alaska sea floor to see effects of bottom trawling
Scientists from the conservation group Oceana, which is based in Juneau, spent eight days aboard a research vessel circumnavigating the Kodiak archipelago.
Citizen science program uses artificial intelligence to track thousands of humpback whales
Through photographs shared by whale watchers, Happy Whale has recorded thousands of whales that travel to and from Alaska.
Navy seeks more ocean for Northern Edge exercise; public comment ends soon
For 2023, the Navy wants to add 246,000 square miles to the area it can use for the exercise, stretching it west to a point south of Dutch Harbor.
Scrubbers are supposed to clean cruise ship stack emissions. Critics say they pollute the water instead.
For the cruise industry, scrubbers are a way to save money by allowing ships to burn cheaper, dirtier fuels. But the toxic chemicals removed from smokestack exhaust don’t just disappear.
Fish and Game surveys Cook Inlet beaches in hopes of reopening to clammers
The closures have been a response to low razor clam counts on the east side of Cook Inlet.
Ocean Ranger repeal moves out of Senate committee
Written public testimony has been overwhelmingly in support of keeping or even expanding independent oversight by the marine engineers.
Alaska artist’s new film captures ‘slow motion tsunami’ of plastic marine debris
“If You Give a Beach a Bottle” incorporates scenes of volunteers cleaning up Alaska shorelines littered with marine debris, coupled with images from Romey’s watercolor sketchbooks.