Earlier this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its first-ever strategic science plan for mariculture in Alaska. NOAA’s Aquaculture Strategic Science Plan covers five years’ worth of goals and priorities for Alaska kelp and oyster farms — and other niche forms of mariculture, like the cultivation of sea cucumbers and abalone. It identifies…
"Alaska Fisheries Science Center"
Watch: In August, scientists saw rare right whales twice in Alaska waters
Biologist Jessica Crance witnessed both sightings personally, and is among a handful of living people who have seen one of this population of right whales up close since the species was devastated by commercial whaling.
NOAA’s first tribal research coordinator aims to build partnerships with Alaska’s Indigenous communities
Mabel Baldwin-Schaeffer is the first tribal coordinator for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s communications program.
Hatchery salmon production ending at Little Port Walter
The field station’s research on king, chum and pink salmon and steelhead trout will continue at Little Port Walter.
As sea ice melts, fish are showing up farther north off Alaska. A federal fishing trip will investigate if they’re sticking around.
A 2017 NOAA survey saw huge amounts of pollock and cod in the northern Bering Sea. Was it an isolated event, or the start of a long-term trend?
The mysterious case of Alaska’s strange sockeye salmon returns this year
From exceptionally strong to exceptionally weak runs, sockeye salmon leave scientists scratching their heads this year in Alaska.
Kreiss-Tomkins backs funding for Sitka harbors, NOAA research in Juneau
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is based in Washington state. But Sitka Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins wants to see NOAA’s Alaska-focused staff, programs and assets relocated closer to home.
Marine biologists seek answers in a warmer Bering Sea
A group of marine scientists visited Western Alaska recently to discuss the results of a second bottom-trawl survey of the northern Bering Sea. This round of research comes seven years after their first survey of the area in 2010.
Ecosystem study unlocks the mystery of black cod survival
Over the past couple of decades black cod — or sablefish — has become one of Southeast Alaska’s most commercially important species. Longliners target them in deep waters off the continental shelf, during the same season as halibut. Although stocks are strong, biologists don’t fully grasp black cod population ecology. A research partnership in Sitka hopes to change that.
Decades of trawl surveys help Bering Sea climate change research
Scientists and fishermen have a new tool for looking at annual trawl surveys in the Bering Sea. It will help researchers get a picture of the true impacts of climate change.